Of Walt, the runaway, & my fire-lock lean'd I hear
sonnet no. lvi
In the tenth part of Song of Myself, the speaker discovers a runaway slave, and feeds and nurses the man back to health. The tableau finishes upon these two lines:
He staid with me a week before he was recuperated and pass’d north,
I had him sit next me at table, my fire-lock lean’d in the corner.
The rifle in the corner is what this poem wonders at. I think it a quality of Anglo-American culture that the relationship between a white and Black man must also include a weapon.
I realize that this sonnet, number 56, and the sonnet before have a lot in common, including the last line :
I really like this one. The play with these ways of saying things especially.
Masterful!! you made a container for all this!! Very difficult to do