Her Heart is Breaking in Despair...

I could vividly see and feel the pain of the slave woman and her son in Harper’s poem The Slave Mother. My attention was caught right away in the first line of the poem by the shriek. I could hear it echo as it “rose so wildly on the air.” And along with being able to hear it, I could feel the pain behind the shriek and my heart broke for the mother and her son even though I did not know yet what was causing them pain. Harper used words in the second stanza that gave me a feeling of weakness and helplessness. The “sadly clasped” hands and the “bowed and feeble head” filled my body with their weakness. The intense grief I felt for them continued with the “storm of agony.” That phrase allowed me to hear and feel the thunder trembling through my chest. I could even see the bright flashes of the lightning. It is discovered in the fifth stanza that the mother and son are slaves and where I began to feel the forced distance and separation between the two even though they were huddled closely together. It is repeatedly said that “he is not hers” even though “her blood is coursing through his veins.” That line gave me the sensation that they had an intense bond and in the sixth stanza they would soon have that bond physically ripped apart. He was the only thing that could repair “her breaking heart” and I not only felt but I could actually see the breaking of that bond through the phrase, “for cruel hands may rudely tear apart.” In the seventh stanza I immediately saw flashes of scenery. Flashes of places where they would probably rather be than in the bondage of slavery. These flashes represent freedom and life and happiness. I saw a beautifully lit path and a “fountain gushing.” These places are positioned among “life’s desert wild.” Finally he is torn “from her circling arms” in the ninth stanza just as they had feared earlier on. The last stanza, I heard more shrieks pierce the quiet air and felt the mother’s heart completely shatter into pieces.