In the second stanza, the speaker is striding along at a normal pace. What does this indicate in "The Slave's Dream"?

In "The Slave's Dream," the enslaved person is dreaming of a life of freedom and joy back in his homeland. In the second stanza, the man dreams of striding along the plains of his homeland beneath the beautiful palm trees as the Niger River flows freely. The tone of the dream and of the "striding along" is one of peace and confidence. The enslaved man does not move with a fearful or angry gait, but with a confidence and ease of a free human being, who is able to move as he pleases. The tone of the dream is certainly in tragic juxtaposition with the life the man is forced to live under the brutal realities of slavery, in which he is unable to stride along happily.