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<\/p>\nI\u2019ve chosen the following three poems for their chronological treatment of American Black history, from slavery, and the underground railway, to segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement. I would use these in a unit on African-American Poetry, after teaching a novel studies unit on \u201cIn the Heath of the Night\u201d by John Ball.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Witnesses<\/strong><\/p>\n BY\u00a0HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW<\/a><\/p>\n In Ocean’s wide domains,<\/p>\n Half buried in the sands,<\/p>\n Lie skeletons in chains,<\/p>\n With shackled feet and hands.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Beyond the fall of dews,<\/p>\n Deeper than plummet lies,<\/p>\n Float ships, with all their crews,<\/p>\n No more to sink nor rise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There the black Slave-ship swims,<\/p>\n Freighted with human forms,<\/p>\n Whose fettered, fleshless limbs<\/p>\n Are not the sport of storms.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These are the bones of Slaves;<\/p>\n They gleam from the abyss;<\/p>\n They cry, from yawning waves,<\/p>\n “We are the Witnesses!”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Within Earth’s wide domains<\/p>\n Are markets for men’s lives;<\/p>\n Their necks are galled with chains,<\/p>\n Their wrists are cramped with gyves.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dead bodies, that the kite<\/p>\n In deserts makes its prey;<\/p>\n Murders, that with affright<\/p>\n Scare school-boys from their play!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n All evil thoughts and deeds;<\/p>\n Anger, and lust, and pride;<\/p>\n The foulest, rankest weeds,<\/p>\n That choke Life’s groaning tide!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These are the woes of Slaves;<\/p>\n They glare from the abyss;<\/p>\n They cry, from unknown graves,<\/p>\n “We are the Witnesses!”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Analysis<\/strong> – Rhetorical Purpose<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Longfellow\u2019s narrative ballad \u201cThe Witnesses,\u201d is a political cry of shame against the public\u2019s blindness to the injustice of slavery, and a call to political action. The ballad takes the perspective of the ghosts of slaves who have perished in the Atlantic. From their final resting place on the ocean bed, the former slaves bear witness to all the slave ships \u201cfreighted with human forms\u201d (line 10) crossing from Africa to North America, above them:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey glare from the abyss\u201d (line 30)<\/p>\n \u201cThey cry, from unknown graves,\u201d (line 31)<\/p>\n \u201cWe are the Witnesses\u201d (line 32).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018To witness\u2019 of course, means to see a crime, and then to report it. The fact that the only witnesses to slavery are the dead, who no longer have real agency, points to the fact that the living, who do have agency, are not acting. I understand this as Longfellow shaming the living into action. In fact, the poem was published as part of a 31-page collection called: Poems on Slavery,<\/em>\u00a0in 1842 (Cambridge, MA: J. Owen), \u201c[\u2026] and the New England Anti-Slavery Tract Association quickly reprinted an abbreviated 8-page version that included [this] poem[\u2026]\u201d (Lockard, Web 2017).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Form and Imagery<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The 32-line ballad of perfect rhyming couplets, is in two parts, each part separated by, and completed with, a refrain. The first half of the poem, consisting of three stanzas, is located in the \u201cOcean\u2019s wide domain\u201d (line 2), while the second three stanzas take place \u201cWithin Earth\u2019s wide domain\u201d (line17). Apart from the refrain, these lines contain the only repetition in the poem, and I think it\u2019s significant that they serve as the introductory phrases of each half of the ballad.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The word \u2018domain,\u2019 usually signifies the place where someone or something lives. But as each half of the ballad describes, slaves have no habitat in this world: the ocean is either the slaves\u2019 grave, or the route to slavery, while on the land \u201cAre markets for men\u2019s lives\u201d (line 18). It\u2019s as though the after-life is the only place slaves can \u2018live.\u2019 While there is no overt religiosity in the poem, is Longfellow deliberately drawing attention to the spirits of slaves as a plea for his readers to acknowledge that slaves are made in God\u2019s image, endowed with souls, every bit equal to White men and women? From the oceanic domain, \u201cThey gleam from the abyss\u201d (line 14) and one imagines the Eternal light. In the final stanza before the last refrain (lines 26-28), Longfellow places causal blame for slavery in the sins of:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnger, and lust, and pride;<\/p>\n \u201cThe foulest rankest weeds,\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat choke Life\u2019s groaning tide!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The \u2018The Witnesses\u2019 is formally precise, written in eight ballad quatrains of perfect, intermittent, rhyming couplets. Each half of the ballad has three stanzas, ending with the refrain. All but seven lines of the poem end with the letter \u2018s\u2019. Most of the lines missing the final \u2018s\u2019 occur in the second half of the poem, and this contributes to a mood change which highlights the difference between the flowing, watery, and hard, earthly domains that divide the poem.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Every line of the poem is exactly six syllables long, and when said aloud, the metrical effect is that of the relentlessness of the horror of slavery. By the end of the 32 lines, the reader is weary, and ready to stop. When the ballad, unusually, ends in the first person plural: \u201cWe are the Witnesses\u201d (line 32), it powerfully places the living, free, White, reader in the position of the witness to all of the misery and injustice detailed in the poem. With all of his devices, Longfellow is shaming his reader\/orator into seeing slavery as inhuman and immoral, and to choose to act to abolish it, on the eve of the American Civil War.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lockard, J. Longfellow and Whittier on slavery. Anti-Slavery Literature. <\/em>Web. Accessed August, 2017. http:\/\/antislavery.eserver.org\/poetry\/longfellowwhittier\/<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Poem #2<\/p>\n Underground Railroad Song Lyrics:<\/p>\n Follow the Drinking Gourd<\/p>\n Story: The lyrics were instructions on how to get to safety. They were taught by a man known as Peg Leg Joe. The young slaves would use to song to know when it is safe to run, and where it is safe to go.<\/p>\n Lyrics:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When the Sun comes back<\/p>\n And the first quail calls<\/p>\n Follow the Drinking Gourd,<\/p>\n For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom<\/p>\n If you follow the Drinking Gourd<\/p>\n The riverbank makes a very good road.<\/p>\n The dead trees will show you the way.<\/p>\n Left foot, peg foot, travelling on,<\/p>\n Follow the Drinking Gourd.<\/p>\n The river ends between two hills<\/p>\n Follow the Drinking Gourd.<\/p>\n There\u2019s another river on the other side<\/p>\n Follow the Drinking Gourd.<\/p>\n When the great big river meets the little river<\/p>\n Follow the Drinking Gourd.<\/p>\n For the old man is a-waiting for to carry to freedom<\/p>\n If you follow the Drinking Gourd.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Poem #3: Theme song from the movie \u201cSelma\u201d about the Civil Rights Movement<\/p>\n Glory<\/p>\n John Legend<\/a>,\u00a0Common<\/a><\/p>\n One day when the glory comes Hands to the Heavens, no man, no weapon One day when the glory comes Now the war is not over, victory isn’t won Selma’s now for every man, woman and child One day when the glory comes When the war is won, when it’s all said and done Songwriters: John Roger Stephens \/ Lonnie Rashid Lynn\u00a0 –\u00a0 Glory lyrics \u00a9 EMI Music Publishing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve chosen the following three poems for their chronological treatment of American Black history, from slavery, and the underground railway, to segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement. I would use these in a unit on African-American Poetry, after teaching a novel studies unit on \u201cIn the Heath of the Night\u201d by John Ball. The Witnesses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31764,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled445\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled445\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled445\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled445\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31764"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled445\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled445\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":675,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled445\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled445\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled445\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled445\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lled445\/files\/2017\/08\/wade-in-the-water-300x232.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nIt will be ours, it will be ours
\nOh one day when the war is won
\nWe will be sure, we will be sure
\nOh glory (Glory, glory)
\nOh (Glory, glory)<\/p>\n
\nFormed against, yes glory is destined
\nEvery day women and men become legends
\nSins that go against our skin become blessings
\nThe movement is a rhythm to us
\nFreedom is like religion to us
\nJustice is juxtapositionin’ us
\nJustice for all just ain’t specific enough
\nOne son died, his spirit is revisitin’ us
\nTruant livin’ livin’ in us, resistance is us
\nThat’s why Rosa sat on the bus
\nThat’s why we walk through Ferguson with our hands up
\nWhen it go down we woman and man up
\nThey say, “Stay down”, and we stand up
\nShots, we on the ground, the camera panned up
\nKing pointed to the mountain top and we ran up<\/p>\n
\nIt will be ours, it will be ours
\nOh one day when the war is won
\nWe will be sure, we will be sure
\nOh glory (Glory, glory)
\nOh (Glory, glory)<\/p>\n
\nAnd we’ll fight on to the finish, then when it’s all done
\nWe’ll cry glory, oh glory (Glory, glory)
\nOh (Glory, glory)
\nWe’ll cry glory, oh glory (Glory, glory)
\nOh (Glory, glory)<\/p>\n
\nEven Jesus got his crown in front of a crowd
\nThey marched with the torch, we gon’ run with it now
\nNever look back, we done gone hundreds of miles
\nFrom dark roads he rose, to become a hero
\nFacin’ the league of justice, his power was the people
\nEnemy is lethal, a king became regal
\nSaw the face of Jim Crow under a bald eagle
\nThe biggest weapon is to stay peaceful
\nWe sing, our music is the cuts that we bleed through
\nSomewhere in the dream we had an epiphany
\nNow we right the wrongs in history
\nNo one can win the war individually
\nIt takes the wisdom of the elders and young people’s energy
\nWelcome to the story we call victory
\nThe comin’ of the Lord, my eyes have seen the glory<\/p>\n
\nIt will be ours, it will be ours
\nOh one day when the war is won
\nWe will be sure, we will be sure
\nOh glory (Glory, glory)
\nOh (Glory, glory)
\nOh glory (Glory, glory)
\nHey (Glory, glory)<\/p>\n
\nWe’ll cry glory (Glory, glory)
\nOh (Glory, glory)<\/p>\n