Slaves dream

H.W. Longfellow’s Poems on Slavery are said to be “so mild that even a Slaveholder might read them without losing his appetite for breakfast”. The Slave’s Dream is about a series of dreams of a victim of slavery during the 19th century.
Beside the ungathered rice he lay,
His sickle in his hand;
His breast was bare, his matted hair
Was buried in the sand.
Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep,
He saw his Native Land.
The physical image of a slave is portrayed through the first stanza of the poem. He is tired from the all work that he has to do on the fields and falls asleep. This last dreaming slumber gives way to a series of aneurisms which reflects the desires of his waking life.
The phrases “ungathered rice” and “sickle in his hand” indicates that his assigned task is left incomplete by him due to his immense fatigue. His bare breast represents the barrenness of his life as a slave and his matted hair “buried” in the sand symbolizes death slowly creeping over his exhausted body. As he sleeps, he sees his once again “Native Land” in his dream.
Wide through the landscape of his dreams
The lordly Niger flowed;
Beneath the palm-trees on the plain
Once more a king he strode;
And heard the tinkling caravans
Descend the mountain-road.
From the second stanza onwards, his dream is described vividly by the poet. We come to know from the phrase “lordly Niger” that his native land was Africa. “Once more a king he strode” makes us guess that perhaps he was the King of a tribe of his land. In his sleep, he once again relives the days of his freedom and he almost hears the “tinkling caravans/ Descend the mountain road”.
He saw once more his dark-eyed queen
Among her children stand;
They clasped his neck, they kissed his cheeks,
They held him by the hand!—
A tear burst from the sleeper’s lids
And fell into the sand.
The third stanza introduces us to his family. He misses his “dark-eyed queen” and his children. He dreams of how they would clasp his neck,