Of water rains & dead […]
Keeping true to the fragmented structure of the previous poems, this quotation depicts the setting and atmosphere of that fateful day upon which the slave ship sunk. The rains poured over the ocean as the men drowned, trapped in their watery grave. This quotation references the water, rain, and dead bodies that would have been found at the scene of the horrific crime.
Exist did not,
In themselves [...]
The slaves on the sailing ship did not belong to themselves. Though they were individual humans with individual thoughts, emotions, and feelings, all of these things were “owned” by those who maintained power over the institution of slavery. This fragmented quote, therefore, captures the fact that slaves, though individual humans, did not exist for themselves, nor in themselves; they belonged for those cruel men and women who, by the laws of the time, owned their bodies and souls.
This is not what was,
Or should be.
In this quotation, the narrator comments on the pure tragedy of the drownings. The deaths of the innocent slaves should never have happened. In a better, more compassionate world, the men on that ship would never have been slaves in this first place. The very institution of slavery, the narrator suggests, would never have existed in a kinder world and, as such, would never have allowed the slaves’ drownings to occur.
A man, you say,
Ruth I hear,
Son oh god no […]
This page depicts the cries of the men, women, and children—loved ones—upon hearing that the slave ship had sunk. These, and other quotes, are scattered throughout the page, and appear as a cacophony of heartache, sorrow, and outrage. These quotations portray the anguish and suffering of all those whose lives were permanently tarnished by the institution of slavery. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends--all were forced to grieve the loss of their loved ones.
