EBB's Appendix C in "Selected Poems"

In this blog, I will be summarizing and analyzing three different texts from the “Appendix C: Trans-Atlantic Abolitionism and Responses to EBB’s Anti-Slavery Poems” section of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Selected Poems. These texts include “The Slave-mother” by Maria Lowell, “The Original Opening of The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point” and The literary World on Hiram Powers Greek Slave and The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point” All of these short passages are different because they don’t all have reviews specifically on EBB, but they do talk about her anti-slavery poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point.

Summary:

Like I just mentioned above, these passages aren’t all critiquing EBB’s poetry, theses passages more describe her poetry and the emotions throughout her poems especially in her poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point. The first passage I chose, Lowell writes a passage in the form of a poem. In this poem, there are six stanzas and each stanza has four lines. The poem’s poetry form has rhyme to it. The last word in each line rhymes with the last word in the next line, so the first two end words rhyme and the next two lines rhyme. For example on page 337:

“Then on her face she looketh, but not as mother proud,

And seeth how her features, as from out a dusky cloud,

Are tenderly unfolding, far softer than her own,

And how, upon the rounded cheek, a fairer light is thrown;”

The next passage I chose wasn’t written by someone, it’s just an added in passage.  And in this passage, it talks about EBB’s opening of the poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point. I liked this little passage because it gives a great explanation on the beginning of her poem. I would encourage anyone who wanted to read this poem to read this short little passage first. It states how in the beginning of the poem, the dramatic speaker is a black slave and how later in the poem (stanza 16) the speaker changes to a female slave “I am black. I am black/ I wear a child upon my breasts”. Then in the passage it states how the beginning of this poem talks about a child being abandoned and gives different titles to others poem about children being abandoned. Then the last passage I looked at talked about how EBB’s poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point had erred (made a mistake). “With slavery, whether it be regarded with loathing, liking, or indifference, the Union has nothing to do; the American is not responsible for it; it is purely a local institution…” (342). As I read EBB’s poem, I didn’t notice that she made a mistake. I enjoyed this poem because there was so much emotion in it and even though it was sad it was still a very well written poem.

Analysis:

So the three texts that I choose were all different in some sort of way, but that’s why I chose those three..I wanted there to be a variety of EBB’s poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point. As I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed her poem because it made me understand the whole slavery point of view and how children are put into slavery whether the male of the master was a slave and definitely if the mother/female was a slave bore child. The emotion was also outstanding and I would recommend this poem to anyone because I really did think it was interesting!