Reading Notes Week 9: "Southern Mansion" by Bontemps, Part X

In the poem “ Southern Mansion” Bontemps  talks about the serious conditions of how blacks were slaves and how there was a lot of inequality.I feel as if you wrote this poem so that people would be more engaging and aware of what black slaves went through and how they suffered so much during slavery.In the beginning of the poem it says “Chains of bondmen dragging on the ground” This gives me the sense that the author wanted to express how  inequality play a big part.You can see the black men are the ones getting their rights taken away from them and  chained together as slaves. You also get a sense of camaraderie in this poem when he says “.A dry leaf trembles on the wall”. This part of the poem I don't really understand but if I were to take a guess it reminds me of a tree that is near a fence and as the tree gets older the leaves start to fall and I feel as if the slaves are the leaves. If you think about it trees don't hold onto brown leaves they hold onto green ones or even yellow ones but when they turn brown the fall and I think that's the comparison he's trying to make. Lastly  the poet says “Ghosts are walking.They have broken roses down”. In this part I feel that the author is saying that these African-American slaves are beautiful roses and they are being pulled apart and picked out of the ground which they can no longer blossom to their fullest potential because of the oppressors.

Citations: Arna Bontemps “Southern Mansion”