One of the elements of poetry that I think Harper and Whittier catered to the most was imagery. Both authors set the story by providing the reader with images to put together in their head. I think that it’s one of the most effective methods for a narrative, but especially if you involve social reform. The reader has a reaction when they can hear something or feel it, but once they are able to see it, I think it has the most powerful effect.
In Whittier’s poem, “The Hunters of Men,” he uses several different images to express different emotions of the catching of slaves. “All blithe are our hunters, and noble their match, though hundreds are caught, there are millions to catch. So speed to their hunting, o’er mountain and glen, Through cane-brake and forest,-the hunting of men!” (Whittier, Lines 6-10) These lines give the reader an image of how many slaves were really caught and how many more Africans they wanted to take away from their home. It also shows that the Africans put up a fight with the catchers because they were fighting for their life. Whittier also shows a different side to the story when he describes a man that felt guilty about what he was doing and wanted to stop. “The politic statesman looks back with a sigh, There is doubt in his heart, there is fear in his eye.” (Whittier, Lines45-46) This entire poem sets an image for the reader because it relates the capture of Africans to become slaves, to the hunting of animals. “The Hunting of Men” is very powerful image in itself because most people have an idea of what hunting animals looks like, so when you picture humans being hunted it is a terrifying image.
Whittier’s “The Farewell of a Virginia Slave Mother to her Daughters Sold into Southern Bondage” and Harper’s “The Slave Mother” both set similar imagery for the reader because they have similar themes. Both poems describe the agony of slaves leaving their family as well as the hardship for slave children. Whittier gives a painful image in reference to a young slave being whipped. “Never, when the torturing lash Seams their back with many a gash, Shall a mother’s kindness bless them, Or a mother’s arms caress them.” (Whittier, Lines 17-20) Whittier uses the image of pain to show that these children didn’t have their mother there when they got hurt to soothe and comfort them. It also makes the reader think about the manner in which slave children were treated in comparison to other children. In Harper’s “The Slave Mother” she uses the same idea of a mother, but her story is about a slave that comforted and made an attachment to a child that wasn’t even hers. There are two stanzas that I think evoke the most powerful images. The first one shows how scared the child was because he was about to be taken away from her. “She is a mother, pale with fear, Her boy clings to her side, And in her kirtle vainly tries His trembling form to hide.” (Harper, Lines 13-16) The other stanza gives the reader a lasting image of the childe being taken away and the pain that it causes. “They tear him from her circling arms, Her last and fond embrace. Oh! Never more may her sad eyes gaze on his mournful face.” (Harper, Lines 33-36)
I think the reason that these authors employed such vivid imagery in their poems was to open the eyes of other Americans to the true terror of slavery. Many white people, especially ones that didn’t own slaves, probably weren’t aware of everything that that happened to the slaves especially when it came to children. I think that once they had these terrifying images in their heads, they were probably more likely to act and help abolish slavery.
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