Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 'A Curse For A Nation'

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote the poem “A Curse for a Nation” is reference to slavery in America. The poem begins with angel telling the speaker to write a curse for America, while the speaker disagrees, eventually the angel convinces her to write this curse. This poem has a strong anti-slavery sentiment which Browning establishes through the use of tone, imagery, and a break in the passage. There is a clear break in the passage between where the angel and the speaker are having a conversation, to the curse that the speaker writes. The meaning of the passage also shifts along with the context. As in the first half, the speaker states she doesn’t want to write a curse for America as America is bonded to England, “For I am bound by gratitude,

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