Bury me in a free land – Not one of the slaves
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper sets the tone and theme with the first stanza of this poem. Bury me in a free land, which is written in a quatrain format with rhyming couplets. The poem does an excellent job of illustrating the liberating thoughts that run through the mind of an individual in physical bondage. The poem allows us to intuit the feeling of what goes through the mind of a person who is captured and dragged into slavery.
The essence of the poem derived from the lament of a slave, does not seek a glorious place to rest in terms of worldly and more glorious possessions. The poem speaks of being buried outside the realms of slavery, which for the author is beyond such worldly possessions. The articulation here shows that slavery has had a terrible impact on those trapped within its dark shackles, thus causing them to suck the blood of life. The poor who have lost the will to resist were further affected and their spirits crushed. A person’s spirit is expected to rest in peace after the person has passed away; however, in this poem about slavery, the author alludes to the fact that her spirit “could not rest” in “the land of slaves”. This highlights the demoralizing impact that slavery has had on those who are violently dragged into its terrible dungeon of darkness.
The images of the fourth stanza of this poem are very chilling. Listen to these words: She couldn’t sleep if she saw the whip / Drinking her blood at each terrible slash / And saw her babies ripped from her chest / Like quivering doves from their parents’ nest. This stanza brings to light the serious images that exist in slavery. Harper really poured her heart out through the words of this stanza in a call for others to rise up against situations that threaten and take lives.
The last stanza speaks of the intention of the author of this poem regarding being free from slavery. This stanza says, I do not ask for a monument, proud and tall / To stop the gaze of passers-by; / All my longing spirit longs for, / Is not to bury myself in a land of slaves. Here we feel the impact of the poem and the author’s intention to be free; free from hatred, violence, tribulation, depressive conditions and indentured servitude even in death.
The quality of this poem is brilliant. Harper’s mastery and articulation of diction to portray slavery is poignant. Her words about the cry of the mother of wild despair in the third stanza and drinking his blood in every terrible cut in the fourth stanza it sends shivers down the spine. This is just an amazing reality poem that still applies to the modern slavery of the mind in today’s environment and the physical slavery in others.