The Slave In The Dismal Swamp: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Slave In The Dismal Swamp, credited to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox volunteers bring you 13 recordings of The Slave In The Dismal Swamp by Henry Wadsworth LongfellowThis was the Fortnightly Poetry project for June 17, 2018. Read in English by Algy Pug; Bruce Kachuk; David Lawrence; Newgatenovelist; Foon; Greg Giordano; Graham Scott; Isaiah Barker; KHand; Larry Wilson; Michele Fry; RajVO and Tomas Peter. The Slave In The Dismal Swamp by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882) This little poem, with it's masterful choice of heavy-laden words, and great alliteration that sounds like a drumbeat and rolls off the tongue, conveys much horror in a very few words. Longfellow wrote poetry like John Singer Sargent painted portraits, with "economy of stroke". This poem shows Longfellow's familiarity with and sympathy for the slavery issues of his day. A contemporary of Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin), both used their literary art to raise consciousness of this intolerable practice. The last stanza is reminiscent of stories told by survivors of the WW II gas chambers, where even amidst the horror, birds still sang and flew overhead, squirrels scampered about, scraggly weeds bloomed their little flowers along the fences, and light fluffy clouds scudding overhead, showing the ghastly contrast between nature's beauty and man-made hell. - Summary by Michele Fry

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Slave In The Dismal Swamp
• Author credits: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 13
• Listed recording duration: 23:51

Catalogue topics

• poetry
• philosophy
• nature
• slavery

Track guide

1. 01 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by ALP — 1:45
2. 02 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by BK — 2:19
3. 03 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by DL — 1:44
4. 04 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by EL — 1:59
5. 05 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by FH — 1:37
6. 06 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by GG — 2:16
7. 07 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by GRS — 2:00
8. 08 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by IB — 1:39
9. 09 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by KJH — 1:35
10. 10 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by LCW — 1:37
11. 11 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by MTF — 1:41
12. 12 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by RAJ — 1:41
13. 13 - The Slave In The Dismal Swamp- Read by TP — 1:57

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.