Slave In The Dismal Swamp

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Running time 00:23:51 · Multi-version (Weekly and Fortnightly poetry)

Audio streams directly from the Internet Archive. Recording by LibriVox volunteers (public domain). The text is in the public domain in the USA; please check the copyright laws of your country.

About this book

This little poem, with it's masterful choice of heavy-laden words, and great alliteration that sounds like a drumbeat, or a heartbeat, and rolls off the tongue, conveys much horror in a very few words. Longfellow wrote poetry like John Singer Sargent painted portraits, with "economy of stroke", and this poem shows Longfellow's familiarity with and sympathy for the slavery issues of his day, and the ghastly contrast between nature's beauty and man-made hell. A contemporary of Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin), both used their literary art to raise consciousness of this intoler

Description from the LibriVox catalogue.

Chapters and downloads on LibriVox →

More by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (32)

You might also like

• Village BlacksmithHenry Wadsworth Longfellow · 00:25:57
• Christmas BellsHenry Wadsworth Longfellow · 0:16:26
• Snow-FlakesHenry Wadsworth Longfellow · 0:24:58
• Reaper And The FlowersHenry Wadsworth Longfellow · 0:41:22
• Travels by the FiresideHenry Wadsworth Longfellow · 0:42:52
• Devil's BridgeHenry Wadsworth Longfellow · 00:24:42
• Rainy DayHenry Wadsworth Longfellow · 00:30:48
• Wreck of the HesperusHenry Wadsworth Longfellow · 00:46:12