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.
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.
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.
And then at furious speed he rode Along the Niger"s bank;His bridle-reins were golden chains, And, with a martial clank,At each leap he could feel his scabbard of steel Smiting his stallion"s flank.
Before him, like a blood-red flag, The bright flamingoes flew;From morn till night he followed their flight, O"er plains where the tamarind grew,Till he saw the roofs of Kaffir huts, And the ocean rose to view.
At night he heard the lion roar, And the hyena scream,And the river-horse, as he crushed the reeds Beside some hidden stream;And it passed, like a glorious roll of drums, Through the triumph of his dream.
The forests, with their myriad tongues, Shouted of liberty;And the blast of the desert cried aloud With a voice so wild and free,That he started in his sleep, and smiled At their tempestuous glee.
He did not feel the driver"s whip Nor the burning heat of day;For death had illumined the Land of Sleep, And his lifeless body layA worn-out fetter, that the soul Had broken and thrown away.
Longfellow
General.-In what actual country was the slave? Of what country did he dream? Did he ride up or down the Niger? What birds, beasts, and trees are mentioned? Could several days" events be crowded into one dream? What is wrong with slavery? Mention some people that tried to abolish it. Are the negroes now better off? What is liberty?