Using vivid imagery, Francis Harper makes the reader feel a great sense of compassion in her poem "The Slave Mother". This poem describes a mother and her child as an unknown person separates them from each other. This was a very common act during the times of slavery and while anyone would be saddened to hear of such a cruel act, Harper takes it a step further by making you feel as though you’re seeing this happen with your own eyes. By making the reader feel like they’re there allows her to stir something deep within them, something that makes the reader hate what they’re reading about and hate the person doing this. This ability to bring out such strong emotions from her reader made Harper a very good writer for the antislavery cause.
Examples of these strong images are found all through out the poem, from beginning to end. In the first stanza it says, “Heard you the shriek? [. . .] as if a burden’d heart Was breaking in despair.” This first line immediately grabs your attention and makes you wonder what could be happening that is hurting this person so much. The first half of the poem carries on in this same way, using very vivid language such as “The shuddering of that fragile form [. . .]” or “As if a storm of agony Were sweeping through the brain.” which makes the reader question why these two people are in such a state of fear.
When it’s finally revealed that someone is trying to separate a mother and her child the reader has no choice but want to help these poor people and stop the monster doing this to them. With her use of imagery Harper gets you on the side of the slaves, bringing to the surface the want to stop senseless acts like this and bring an end to slavery.
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