The Bondwoman’s Dream + 

The slave with sickle + 

reaped the wheat, + 

Then wearily limped + 

among the stooks; + 

But not to rest, + 

Her little son she sought + 

Who wakened crying + 

in cool nest + 

among the sheaves. + 

His swaddled limbs unwrapped + 

she nourished him, + 

Then, dandling him a moment + 

fell asleep. + 

In dreams she saw + 

her little son, + 

Her Johnny, grown to man, + 

handsome and rich. + 

No lonely bachelor + 

but a married man + 

In freedom it seemed, + 

no longer the landlord’s + 

but his own man. + 

And in their own joyous field + 

his wife and he + 

reaped their own wheat, + 

Their children brought their food. + 

The poor thing + 

laughed in her sleep, + 

Woke up⁠— + 

a dream indeed it was. + 

She looked at Johnny, + 

picked him up and swaddled him, + 

And back to her allotted task; + 

Sixty stooks her stint. + 

Perhaps the last of the sixty it was: + 

God grant it. + 

And God grant + 

this dream of thine + 

may be fulfilled. + 