<span>The stanza is an example of extended metaphor. It is interesting that the lines are unchanged from the original song from which the melody for “Birmingham Sunday” is taken. In this metaphor, the “men in the forest” seemed awfully concerned about the “black berries.” At the same time, the speaker, “with a tear” in his or her eye, asks about the “dark ships.” Although this stanza can be taken many different ways, I think it is a metaphor for the fear that people feel for things they do not understand. The men in the forest are scared of things they don’t know from the Blue Sea, while the speaker (who seems to be from the Blue Sea based on the question posed) is fearful of the dark ships in the forest. In this way, the extended metaphor is speaking about the fear that races have of each other and the meaninglessness of that fear. Just as the “black berries” or “dark ships” mean nothing to us, race shouldn’t mean anything when evaluating the worth of a person.</span>
To me, I believe these lines represent the different forms and tasks of slavery/slaves in America. The slaves in the country were asking about the black berries, like the harvesters on fields that were in the ocean, where they thought life would be better. The slave, equally as distraught asked them about the dark ships, which I believe are slave ships, in the country. This to me showed that they thought there was a better way of life for them available at the time, but truly every black man and woman was struggling with whatever task was put upon them.
You say the title or name first. Then you talk about WHAT your presentation is about. Its called an introduction, make sure at the end of your introduction it leads to more stuff to talk about later on.
The word "gross" in this line from Frederick Douglas's famous speech named <span>“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” </span>means flagrant or extreme. This term is often used with the word "injustice" and it means unacceptable and obvious which is definition for flagrant as well.
