Analysis of The Slave Ship
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
No surge was on the sea,
No cloud was on the day,
When the ship spread her white wings,
Like a sea-bird on her way.
Ocean lay bright before,
The shore lay green behind,
And a breath of spice and balm
Came on the landward wind.
There rose a curse and wail.
As that vessel left the shore ;
And last looks sought their native land,
Which should dwell there no more !
Who seeing the fair ship
That swept through the bright waves.
Would dream that tyrants trod her deck,
And that her freight was slaves !
By day was heard the lash,
By night the heavy groan ;
For the slave's blood was on the chain
That festered to the bone !
Was one in that dark ship,
A prince in his own land ;
He scorned the chain, he scorned the threat —
He scorned his fetter'd hand.
He called upon his tribe,
And said they might be free !
And his brow was cold and stern,
As he pointed to the sea.
Next night a sullen sound
Was heard amid the wave !
The tyrants sought their captives,—
They only found their grave.
“While at the anchorage at Zanzibar,” says a private letter from an officer of the Andromache, "a vessel or two arrived, with at least from 150 to 200 slaves each on board ; which vessels were, in fact, (had any idea of humanity or kindness prevailed among the dealers,) incapabie of containing more than 20 or 25 persons. The wretched cargoes were literally stowed in bulk*; all sexes and ages wedged together at the bottom of the vessel, and their feet only kept from the water occasioned by the usual leakage, by a cargo of rhinoceros’ hides and horns, gums of several kinds, (particularly copal,) and elephants' teeth.”
* Stowed in bulk is a nautical phrase for any thing closely packed, without separation ;— a barrel of herrings , will convey the best idea of an Arab slave-vessel ; and, indeed, of some of the smaller French traders formerly engaged in this traffic about Mauritius and Bourbon.
Scheme | ABXB CDXD XCEC FGXG XHXH FEXE XAXA XIXI X X |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111101 111101 1011011 1011101 101101 011101 0011101 110101 110101 1110101 01111101 111111 110011 111011 11110101 010111 111101 110101 10111101 110101 110111 010111 11011101 111101 110111 011111 0111101 1110101 110101 110101 0101110 110111 11010011010101011100101010110111111111111000111001010100110010101011010111100101010001011100101010101010100111011010010101001010110100101111011000101001 101101001110110101010010110101010101110110001111010110100010110010100010 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,897 |
Words | 348 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1, 1 |
Lines Amount | 34 |
Letters per line (avg) | 43 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 146 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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"The Slave Ship" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/45214/the-slave-ship>.
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