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Tariq Makki
Webster Garrett
ENGL 438-01
29 February 2016

Reader response: The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point Elizabeth

Browning

Pre-Reading Notes.

Text
After I looked at all the titles of Browning's poems that are listed in
the anthology book, I think she was concerned about her community,
and she could be a romantic person as well. I expected, from the title of
this poem, that it will draw real descriptions about social life in the
Victorian age. The name of this poem is "The Runaway Slave at
Pilgrim's Point." I guessed that she would talk about a relationship
between white and black people. She would also describe suppression,
humiliation, and killing.
Reader
I was tired by this poem because Elizabeth Browning wrote a very
long poem. I spent three days trying successfully to look up and analyze
words from this poem using a literature glossary's dictionary. Thus, I
found a few information about this poem. Generally, I would like to try

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read another poem of Elizabeth Browning, such as "The Cry of the

Children". It may talk about children inside factories in the Victorian
age. I think the poet gives very clear titles, and each title portrays and
incarnates its poem because sometimes poems' titles may be different
from what are inside poems.
First reading
After I read "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point ", I realized that
this poem talks about racism. She was able to live black people's lives,
and she was able to feel what they felt in the Victorian age. She
protests against white's treatment toward African. She takes the place
of the black woman who is in this poem, and how she felt about racism.
The character in this poem is a female African slave. She escapes from
her masters and pain. She says that she is a black similar to the dark of
the sea and sky. The character also repeats some words. She shouts in
many sections, "I am black, I am black. I think she is trying to say that it
is impossible to live her independence among white people. She asks
God who made her, and why black people must be under white feet.
She mentions something about the happiness that could be in her past
life, or she was happy with someone. line 115 and 116, she announces
that the baby who lay on her bosom is white, too white for her. In other
words, at the time of slavery, color women were under sexual
exploitation by their masters. This situation could have happened to the
main character; thus, producing a baby is very sad for the woman. As
mentioned in line 120-154, I guess the low of slavery in that time was, if

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a woman slave has a child from masters, the child will be born into
slavery. At the end of this poem, the woman kills her child. "The
Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point " made an impression on me. At that
time, it was so harmful for black mothers to kill their children. The
reason was, black mothers wanted to avoid their children to live in the
pain of slavery.
"The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point "consists of two hundred fiftythree lines with thirty-six sections. Furthermore, the poem has
(ABABCCB) Rhythm, I feel that I sing when I read it. It seems that the
atmosphere of this poem shows woman's sadness, frustration, and
darkness who sits near to the sea and looks at the sky.
I.

Re-Reading
I think it is very long poem, and it has deep meaning about racism. I

like her writing style and the order of poem. I think she was one of the
perfect poets, who could live the lower classes' lives like Tennyson.
Although this poem is long, it is written in medium language; so, I am
able to understand a specific idea for each line. In addition, I
misunderstood the perspective of Browning regarding Pilgrim's point. Is
it a temple? I guess the misunderstanding could happen because of the
cultural differences between Browning's thoughts, and my thoughts.
However, she wanted to teach Victorian people a very important lesson
which is treat color people as humans with equality and justice.

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