The Slave's Lament by Robert Burns

An enslaved speaker, torn from Senegal and taken to Virginia, laments never seeing home again. Remembering Senegal’s flowing streams and flowers, the speaker contrasts them with Virginia’s snow and frost, fears the scourge, and weeps for dear friends.

By Robert Burns · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Dramatic Monologue · 254 words

First lines

It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral, / For the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O: / Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more; / And alas! I am weary, weary O: / Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more; / And alas! I am weary, weary O.

All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost, / Like the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O: / There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow, / And alas! I am weary, weary O: / There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow, / And alas! I am weary, weary O:

• Open reader

Genres

• Lyric Poetry — Three stanzas express the speaker’s homesickness and exhaustion through repeated lines and a recurring lament.
• Dramatic Monologue — An enslaved speaker recounts removal from Senegal and describes burdens, fear, and memories of friends in Virginia.

Tags

slavery · forced displacement · homesickness · Senegal · Virginia · forced labor

What this Textopian page supports

The Slave's Lament is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated Date unknown.

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• Work type: Poem
• Author: Robert Burns
• Date: Date unknown
• Language: English
• Genres: Lyric Poetry, Dramatic Monologue
• Length: 254 words
• Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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• Work identity for The Slave's Lament by Robert Burns
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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More by Robert Burns

• Handsome Nell (1808)
• O Tibbie, I Hae Seen the Day (1786)
• I Dream'D I Lay (1792)
• In the Character of a Ruined Farmer (1786)
• Tragic Fragment (1786)
• The Tarbolton Lasses (1808)
• Ah, Woe is me, my Mother Dear (1808)
• Montgomerie's Peggy (1790)
• All works by Robert Burns