LITERATURE IN ENGLISH

STD 8
THE SLAVE’S DREAM
2023-2024

Answer the following questions with reference to the context.

A.
Wide through the landscape of his dreams
The lordly Niger flowed;

1. Name the poet in the given extract.

A. The poet is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

2. How is the slave introduced in the opening stanza of the poem?

A. In the opening stanza, the slave is seen lying in a field with ungathered rice. He has his sickle
in his hand, his chest is bare, his thick hair is covered in sand and in the dimness of sleep, he
dreamt of his native land.

3. Explain the lines:

The lordly Niger flowed;
Beneath the palm trees on the plain.
A. The slave is lying in the field when he dreams of the great river Niger flowing in his land. He
sees himself walking happily under the palm trees on the plain. He was once again the chieftain
of his land as he once used to be before he was taken as a slave.

4. Why is there a ‘tear burst from the sleeper’s lids’? What does it reveal about the
sleeper?
A. In his dream, his mind wanders to his wife, the dark eyed queen of his land standing amongst
their children. He sees his children embrace him, kiss his cheeks, their little fingers clasping his
hands. Though he is sleeping, his worry and longing for his family makes a tear drop from his
eyes onto the sand.

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5. How does the slave imagine himself while riding ‘at furious speed’ along the banks of
Niger?
A. The slave dreams of how he used to ride along the banks of the Niger with the wind on his
face. He imagines himself once more as the rich king of his land with golden bridle- reins
clanking as though he were going to war.
Each time his horse would leap, he could feel his sword’s steel sheath strike the horse’s hide.

B.
Before him, like a blood-red flag,
The bright flamingoes flew;

1. Name and explain the figure of speech used in the given extract.
A. The figure of speech is a simile. The bright feathered flamingoes that flew before the slave as
he was riding are compared to a blood-red flag fluttering in the wind.

2. Where did the slave see the flamingoes fly in his dream?
A. The slave sees himself riding his horse at a great speed through his native land. He saw the
flamingoes fly before him over the plains where tamarind grew. He followed them throughout
the day till he saw the Caffre huts and the ocean came to his view.

3. What kind of animals were visualised by the slave?

A. The slave visualised the lion roaring, the hyenas screaming and the hippopotamus crying.

4. Explain the lines:

.....like a glorious roll of drums,
Through the triumph of his dream.
A. The slave dreams of lion’s roaring over its prey, the hyena’s screaming and listens to the
hippopotamus. All these familiar yet distant sounds of animals, sound like an impressive roll of
the drums in his beautiful dream heralding a victorious king.
It was a happy, merry, triumphant dream as it successfully gives him a sense of freedom and
happiness.

5. What did the ‘forests’ and the ‘Desert’ shout for? How did the slave react?
A. The ‘forests’ and each of their myriad tongues (individual leaves) shout for liberty and
freedom. Similarly, the sound in the ‘Desert’ too spoke of liberty in a free and frenzied voice.
The slave thinks about how the forests were not bound by the will of another and how the
innumerable voices of the forest shouted for liberty. He realizes that the desert was its own
master, untamed and free. When he hears their shouts, he smiles in his sleep thinking of this hope
of freedom and how tempting this happiness is. He smiled in his sleep almost as though he is
going to join them in their ecstatic delight.

6. Why does the poet say ‘Death had illumined the Land of Sleep’?
A. The poet says so as the ‘Land of Sleep’ was brightened/illuminated by death – death had
brought light to the Land of Sleep as there was nobody to wake him from this serene dream. He

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is unaffected by the pain for death had brightened up and beckoned him into the land of eternal
sleep.

7. What do you understand by the phrase ‘the soul had broken and thrown away’?
A. It means that now only his body lay there, like a broken chain whereas his soul was in a much
better place. His body was worn-out from all the work he had done. He was finally freed from
his slavery.
Through his death, his soul has broken the fetters of his body and attained freedom.

8. State the theme of the poem.

A. The main theme in The Slave's Dream is the nature of freedom. The Slave’s Dream portrays
the lost dreams and ambitions of a slave. The poem describes the slave’s dying moment as lost in
a dream. It is a celebration of liberty and dignity as no master can deprive his slave of his liberty
to dream.

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