In-depth analysis of the poem The slave dealer. This document consists of 4 resources compiled into one. All the important notes are labeled to make the summary as short as possible for easy learning.
Title: The Slave Dealer
Summary:
The speaker highlights the subject of slavery from a slave dealer’s point of view. The slave dealer is a
person who deals with the sale of people from poor to upper-class backgrounds and forcefully remove and
transport these people from their families to other countries or continents.
Analysis:
Stanza 1:
The slave dealer is compared to a traveller whose face has tanned to a brownish colour because he has
been spending a lot of time in the sun. His mother does not recognise him because of the evil path he
had chosen, and the harshness of the sun has altered his outward appearance. She does not recognise
him, until he tells her his name.
Setting of stanza: The slave dealer’s home after he returned from his travels and was no longer a slave
dealer.
Tone: despondent/ hopeless
1 From ocean’s wave a wanderer Ocean’s wave a wonderer came:
came, - W-Alliteration: Emphasizes that the slave trade came
from the ocean.
- Metaphor: The slave dealer is compared to a wanderer
(someone who is lost)
- Effectiveness: Emphasises the extreme loss he feels –
even though his guilt.
Oceans wave: Suggests that the slave trade happened at
sea.
2 With visage tanned and dun: Visage: Person’s face
Tanned and dun:
- His face was burnt to a light brown/greyish colour.
- His features are plagued with years of harshness by the
weather, by his job.
Irony: The slave dealer has taken advantage of Africans,
but he has been burnt by the sun and his skin has become
the same colour as those he abused.
3 His mother, when he told his name, Metaphor ‘mother’:
- The slave trader’s mother is compared to all the
mothers of the colonialists who took part in slave trading
- The mothers did not approve what their sons were
doing
4 Scarce knew her long-lost son; Meaning: His mother did not recognise him. Left young,
now a man.
Long lost:
- Suggests that she has last seen him a long time ago.
- Biblical reference
- L-Alliteration: Emphasises that the slave dealer has
been away for a long time
5 So altered was his face and frame Meaning: The slave dealer’s appearance has undergone
changes, indicating the impact of his immoral activities.
F-Alliteration: Emphasises that his journey was harsh and
it took a toll on his outward appearance as well.
6 By the ill course he had run. Metaphor ‘ill course’:
- The course of his life is compared to an illness/disease.
- Effectiveness: Emphasizes his guilt in being a slave
trader and how it has affected him.
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