Introduction
Philip Freneau’s To Sir Toby chronicles on the slavery experienced on the Caribbean islands. This is because the residents undergo suffering in the hands of the slave masters at the landmass. Freneau applies vivid imagery and expressive language to portray inhuman practices by slave owners. The poet tries to discourage this habit by condemning the actions of the slave masters. For instance, he opposes slavery on every level from acquisition of people as possessions, to labelling them, to brutalizing them like animals. As a result, the poem is useful as it serves as a passionate work about the wrongs of slavery and human brutality. Although the poem is about slavery, the author uses various literary devices to express his opposition of the slavery practices.
Literary analysis
At the start of the poem, the poet uses descriptive terms about the island, which favors slavery actions to take place. Freneau relates the island to hell by using harsh words to describe the island as hell. He says that Sir Toby slaves enjoy the existence of hell in that place by enduring the miseries. This sets the mood of the poem to relate to somber since human beings endure brutality and hostility, like animals. Therefore, with this somber tone, Freneau continues to describe the slave owner as a devil who does not care about the feelings of the slaves. This description fits into the practice of slavery because it is only in hell where people endure torturing in the presence of a devil. The reference of the slave owner as a devil classifies him as the leader in the hell who brands properties upon arrival. This is because the slave owners are in charge of the weird actions that take place on the island.
The poem further presents the extreme discrimination and wicked oppression of man’s defeat within the society of slavery. This enables Freneau to display how total power in the hands of man degrades the kindness of nature. This is because the poet describes slavery in West Indies as hell, which employs a deviant to label his property. The poet insists that nature’s disgust of slavery and its agents reverse the kindness of nature. There is the use of imagery in describing events that baffle the persona. For instance, the poet defines the strokes of the drivers as fundamental of the slave’s endless terror. The pains affect the poet’s ears of the manifestations of nature that arise from the evils. The poet uses imagery to categorize dictators with the most terrible creatures, which torment the slaves in service to tyranny. The dictatorship that employs slavery uses the most terrible conceptions of nature to torment the enslaved. This implies that the slave owners reveal slaves with the detestable creatures, which attack as if the restrained persons present a threat. Therefore, the slave masters receive little appreciation of token from the buyers. This is the consequence that nobody finds relief from the tireless sadism and sadists.
However, the slaves can run away from the torture, but the supervisors are carefully monitoring their movements. This is because they do not want to lose their wealthy status and possession of property that attract others. The oppressed are unwilling to escape because of defeat and labor to feed the greed of the tyrant. The portrayal of such horrors of slavery, which the poet describes as a monstrous human deviation solidifies Freneau’s natural theology. This is because Freneau emphasizes the wickedness that results from the exploitation of the religion of nature and the goodness characteristic in truly open surroundings. This is a complete denial of human rights because of the powers bestowed upon the slave masters hinders the acquisition of nature’s ideals through denial of nature’s true spiritual state. This can result in the divinity nature’s rebellion against oppressive destruction and nature’s subsequent demonization since what the slave masters observe is not what they offer their slaves.
In the entire poem, the tone is sad due to the suffering of the slaves. The slaves face difficult conditions in the camp since they have to work for extended hours in the farms. The poet reveals their misery to the audience by relating it to religious notations. This sad tone changes the perception of the poem because the audience engages in the frustrations. Tones are always essential in poems as they represent the feelings of the persona. The poet uses tonal variation in different aspects depending on the nature of the treatment subjected to the slaves. Tones are evident in the imagery that the persona uses to describe events. For instance, Freneau uses evil words to describe the dehumanizing nature of the works taken by the slaves. This makes the tone to gain relevance as the theme of slavery is widely evident in all the verses of the poem. The feelings portrayed in the poem attract audience attention to sympathize with the slaves towards rescuing them from torture. For instance, the poet laments that the slaves possess brands that make them property of others.
Organization of the poem follows an unorganized structure through informal language to describe things. Freneau describes slaves as Negroes near the river Senegal where they were fetched for transportation. The flow of language requires in-depth analysis of the words in the verses in order to digest the comprehensive meaning of the poem. The language in the poem incorporates political ideologies that facilitated the rise of slavery in the ancient times. This implies that historical perspectives and personal issues are central in the application of various themes. The style of writing that poem is reminiscent of the political era in the American society. For the poet, the style is crucial in the state of slavery that represents the opposition of nature-inspired dreamland. For instance, slavery is hell and the slave owners who employ another different person to burn brand marks into the slave’s flesh. This introduces the cruel nature and style that is dominant in the poem. In the first stanza, the organization is informal with consideration of poem writing skills used. However, the style uses ancient Shakespearean version of shortening words. Description of Sir Toby’s cruel position towards the slaves is evident in the first line. This paints the notion that the entire poem is about suffering and tribulations of the subordinate staff.
In the last stanzas, Freneau associates the advent of slaves in America with the onset of the damned in Hades. This is a dominant redefinition of national distinctiveness designed to allow readers about the struggles of independence and freedom in the country. For example, Freneau’s metaphor is vital for various reasons apart from offering descriptive terms of the events. First, the ghetto is equivalent to hell because of the suffering that people face in their lives. This is the same as the current account of the cotton field, but blame and disappointment make it disappear. This is because the oppressed need to survive sufferings to enable them facilitates their deliverance without preserving the arrogance implied in the poem. The slaves are fearful because of the whips they take, which encourages them to work. There are instances where the poet uses irony to pass his message. He says that the slaves are property that brings riches to their masters. This is ironical because human beings cannot be valued in monetary terms. It is just a sense of portraying the true situation of slavery in the olden days. The majority of the slaves were in high demand, to work in plantation farms without basic needs from their masters. This made the masters wealthy in their communities because of the large tracts of farms prepared by the slaves. The slaves saw foods that they could not buy and free labor that they could not enjoy. That was life in the plantations since slaves prepared lands, but not allowed to eat the foods they planted. They were in chains all day long without free time to rest or talk with their fellow slaves.
The prevalent theme of the poem is slavery. This was a common matter that many authors expressed, in their pieces, to discourage inequality. Freneau was a revolutionary poet who wanted to correct political injustices of his time. Slavery was an exercise promoted by political systems since they supported the slave masters. These slave masters offered taxes to the administration, which further promoted the trade. However, the original audience entailed the Americans who shared revolutionary ideals in political rhetoric. This is because they were able to isolate the imagery in the poems and create the mental picture that Freneau projected in the poems. The poem borrows scenes from many nations that faced slavery such as Angola. This African country had energetic people transported overseas to work in farms. The poet says that Angola’s natives toiled in the farm only for the products to be shipped to foreign lands. This means that slavery started in the other countries as it spread to other parts. The poem not only relates the plights of the slaves, but also the origin of slavery. This theme is also emphasized by the tone, style and imagery in the whole poem. The tone stresses on the suffering of the slaves and the rewards of the masters in fulfilling their potential. On the other hand, the imagery represents that true scenario of events in object form without affecting any party. The style of the poem is also essential in the promotion of the slavery theme since it attacks the perpetrators of human rights and justice in an informal language.
Conclusion
Freneau’s To Sir Toby is an educative piece that traces the origins of slavery in the colonial times, in America. This practice takes place in the Caribbean islands where the shipping of Negroes takes place from other African countries. The poet introduces his theme in various forms through imagery, styles and language. For instance, Freneau applies vivid imagery and expressive language to portray inhuman practices of slave owners. As a result, the poem is useful as it serves as a passionate work about the wrongs of slavery and human brutality. In addition, at the start of the poem, the poet uses descriptive terms about the island, which favors slavery actions to take place. Freneau relates the island to hell by using harsh words to describe the island as hell. This enables Freneau to display how the total power in the hands of man degrades the kindness of nature. This is because the poet describes slavery in West Indies as hell, which employs a deviant to label his property. However, the slaves can flee from the torture, but the supervisors are carefully monitoring their movements. This is because they do not want to lose their wealthy status and possession of property that attract others. Freneau further emphasizes the wickedness that results from the exploitation of the religion of nature and the goodness characteristic in truly open surroundings. Another device is the tone, which is a sad tone due to the suffering of the slaves. The slaves face difficult conditions in the camp since they have to work for extended hours in the farms. The poet reveals their misery to the audience by relating it to religious notations. For instance, Freneau describes slaves as Negroes near the river Senegal where they were fetched for transportation. The flow of language requires in-depth analysis of the words in the verses in order to digest the comprehensive meaning of the poem. In the last stanzas, Freneau associates the advent of slaves in America with the onset of the damned in Hades. This is a dominant redefinition of national distinctiveness designed to allow readers about the struggles of independence and freedom in the country.
Bibliography
Axelrod, Steven Gould. 2003. The new anthology of American poetry 1. New Brunswick
[u.a.]: Rutgers Univ. Press.
Freneau, Philip Morin, and Fred Lewis Pattee. 1993. The poems of Philip Freneau, poet of
the American Revolution. New York: Russell & Russell.
Leary, Lewis. 1996. "The Dream Visions of Philip Freneau." Early American Literature 11,
no. 2: 156. Literary Reference Center Plus, EBSCOhost (accessed July 8, 2013).
Marsh, Philip M. 1998. The works of Philip Freneau, a critical study. Metuchen, N.J.:
Scarecrow Press.
Reed, Kenneth T. 2009. Philip Freneau as political satirist. American Notes & Queries 7, no.
10: 147. Literary Reference Center Plus, EBSCOhost (accessed July 8, 2013).
