EL230: American Literature

TMA: Fall Semester 2016 - 2017
TMA: 20 points
[Prepared by Course Chair: Dr. Hoda Khallaf]


In no more than 1200 words, do a close reading of Frances Harper’s poem, “Bury Me in a Free Land!” [pp. 1187-1188 in The Norton Anthology of American Literature]:
You may make my grave wherever you will,
In a lowly vale or a lofty hill;
You may make it among earth’s humblest graves,
But not in a land where men are slaves.

I could not sleep if around my grave
I heard the steps of a trembling slave;
His shadows above my silent tomb
Would it make it a place of fearful gloom.

I could not rest if I heard the tread
Of a coffle-gang to the shambles led,
And the mother’s shriek of a wild despair
Rise like a curse on the trembling air.

I could not rest if I heard the lash
Drinking her blood at each fearful gash,
And I saw her babes torn from her breast
Like trembling doves from their parent nest.

I’d shudder and start, if I heard the bay
Of the bloodhounds seizing their human prey;
If I heard the captive plead in vain
As they tightened afresh the galling chain.


If I saw young girls, from their mothers’ arms
Bartered and sold for their youthful charms
My eye would flash with a mournful flame,
My death-paled cheek grow red with shame.

I would sleep dear friends, where bloated might
Can rob no man of his dearest right;
My rest shall be calm in my grave
Where none calls his brother a slave.

I ask no monument proud and high
To arrest the gaze of passers by;
All that my spirit yearning craves,
Is— bury me not in the land of slaves.

Student Notes: Published in 1858, the poem falls within the context of African American slavery and the years leading up to the American Civil War. Your discussion should explain this context and show which stance the poem is taking. Your response should display a detailed stanza by stanza analysis of the use of imagery and other poetic devices; showing how these support the theme and the intended message of the poem.
NOTE: Evidence of consulting e-library sources will be an added asset.
The following are guidelines on plagiarism:
If you submit an assignment that contains work other than yours without acknowledging your sources, you are committing plagiarism. This might occur when:
• Using a sentence or phrase that you have come across
• Copying word-for-word directly from a text
• Paraphrasing the words from the text very closely
• Using text downloaded from the Internet
• Borrowing statistics or assembled fact from another person or source
• Copying or downloading figures, photographs, pictures or diagrams without acknowledging your sources
• Copying from the notes or essays of a fellow student
(Slightly adapted from OU document on quoting versus plagiarism)
It is important to remember that plagiarism is strictly barred and would be subject to punitive action by the Arab Open University.