Journal #7

I have chosen to use the element of imagery to analyze the poem the slave mother by Frances Harper. The beginning of the poem begins with describing how the child "shrieked" and then goes on to describe a "broken heart". Even though the author is describing something as simple as a child being taken away from its mother she uses the words shrieking and broken heart to almost inflict the appearances that actual physical damage is being done to the individual. Later towards the middle of the poem she describes how the "boy clings to her side" this is something that could also be interpreted with two meanings. Although reading this may initially be a simple meaning of a baby being held as they usually cling to the mothers side, it is so much more than that. This also described how the baby is holding on to its mom as for fear of being taken and how a slave baby might hold on to the memory or their mother for their entire life. The last aspect of this poem I am going to bring up is how she describes that "he is not hers, although she bore For him a mothers pains; He is not hers, although her blood Is coursing through her veins!" The choice of wording she used in describing how her son is her biological property was words like "blood" and "pain". This is also symbolic of the pain and the sheer negative emotion a slave mother feels as her child is being ripped from her arms.