Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SLAVE, by JOSE-MARIA DE HEREDIA (1842-1905)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SLAVE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Nude, sordid, frightful, offal-fed, a slave
Last Line: Objectivity, its careful workmanship, and its reserve.
Subject(s): Grief; Slavery; Sorrow; Sadness; Serfs


Nude, sordid, frightful, offal-fed, a slave—
See, where my body bears the bitter signs!—
I was free born where a blue, deep river twines
And Hybla dips her summits in the wave.

I left the happy isle. ... And now I crave,
If ever toward Syracusan bees and vines
You follow in the spring the swift swan's lines,
Dear guest, seek her to whom alone I gave

My heart. Shall ever I see her sombre eyes
Pure smiling to reflect our natal skies
Under the triumphal arch my days implore?

Go, find Clèarista; be in pity clad!
Tell her I live to look on her once more. ...
You'll know her by this, that she is always sad.

Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle (1818-1894) was the leader of the
Parnassians, who followed Gautier, and who in rebellion against the romantics,
framed the famous program of "art for art's sake." The work of Leconte de Lisle
furnishes a good example of the better moments of this school, with its
objectivity, its careful workmanship, and its reserve.





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