The Slave's Lament
written in 1792
The Slave's Lament - meaning Summary
Exile, Loss, and Enforced Labor
A first‑person speaker, captured in Senegal and transported to Virginia, mourns forced exile and the loss of home. The poem contrasts the warm, fertile coast left behind with the harshness of the new land, repeating a weary refrain that emphasizes ongoing suffering. The speaker remembers friends and family with bitter tears, fears physical punishment, and registers deep longing and fatigue. The simple, songlike pace and repeated lines convey enforced repetition and stagnation, making the poem a compact expression of displacement, grief, and the human cost of slavery.
Read Complete AnalysesIt was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthrall For the lands of Virginia-ginia O; Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more, And alas! I am weary, weary O! Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more; And alas! I am weary, weary O! All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost, Like the lands of Virginia-ginia O: There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow, And alas! I am weary, weary O! There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow, And alas! I am weary, weary O! The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear, In the lands of Virginia-ginia O; And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear, And alas! I am weary, weary O! And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear, And alas! I am weary, weary O!
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