The Song of HiawathaDavid Bogue, 1855 - 316 ˹éÒ In the Summer of 1854, Longfellow wrote in his diary: "I have at length hit upon a plan for a poem on the American Indians, which seems to me the right one and the only. It is to weave together their beautiful traditions as whole." What emerged the next year was "The Song of Hiawatha," a composite of legends, folklore, myth, and characters that presents, in short, lilting trochees (who can forget "By the shore of Gitche Gumme / By the shining Big-Sea-Water"?), the life-story of a real Indian, who provides the focus for the narrative thread of this epic drama of high adventure, tragedy, and conflict. The aim was not to tell a particular or specific story, but to unite the strands of various Indian legends, to present a sympathetic portrait of many Native American tribes, and especially to disclose their profound relationship with the natural world. This when both government policies and an expanding, land-hungry population were just initiating their inexorable campaign of displacement and annihilation. The poem received a decidedly mixed reception. Our own Boston Traveller revealed its biases: "We cannot help but express our regret that our own pet national poet should not have selected as a theme of his muse something better and higher than the silly legends of the savage aborigines." Despite this, the poem entered into our canon of great narratives, and was revived again in 1891 when Remington, surely the most renowned artist of the West, provided over 400 newly commissioned pen and ink drawings. This handsome, new, and freshly reset edition (the only unabridged version in print) presents the full text and includes the original Remington illustrations as well as a glossary of the Indian names and their meanings. Book jacket. |
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˹éÒ 45 - Then upon one knee uprising, Hiawatha aimed an arrow; Scarce a twig moved with his motion, Scarce a leaf was stirred or rustled, But the wary roebuck started, Stamped with all his hoofs together, Listened with one foot uplifted, Leaped as if to meet the arrow; Ah! the singing, fatal arrow, Like a wasp it buzzed and stung him!
˹éÒ 3 - Should you ask me whence these stories, Whence these legends and traditions, With the odors of the forest, With the dew and damp of meadows, With the curling smoke of wigwams, With the rushing of great rivers, With their frequent repetitions, And their wild reverberations As of thunder in the mountains, I should answer, I should tell you : From the forests and the prairies; From the great lakes of the Northland, From the land of the Ojibways...
˹éÒ 38 - Ewa-yea ! my little owlet ! Who is this, that lights the wigwam ? With his great eyes lights the wigwam ? Ewa-yea ! my little owlet ! " Many things Nokomis taught him Of the stars that shine in heaven ; Showed him Ishkoodah, the comet, Ishkoodah, with fiery tresses ; Showed the Death-Dance of the spirits, Warriors with their plumes and...
˹éÒ 90 - Cedar ! Of your strong and pliant branches, My canoe to make more steady, Make more strong and firm beneath me ! " Through the summit of the Cedar Went a sound, a cry of horror, Went a murmur of resistance ; But it whispered, bending downward, " Take my boughs, O Hiawatha...
˹éÒ 81 - All the many sounds of nature Borrowed sweetness from his singing; All the hearts of men were softened By the pathos of his music; For he sang of peace and freedom, Sang of beauty, love, and longing; Sang of death, and life undying In the Islands of the Blessed, In the kingdom of Ponemah, In the land of the Hereafter.
˹éÒ 124 - With the crimson tuft of feathers, With the blood-red crest of Mama. But the wealth of Megissogwon, All the trophies of the battle, He divided with his people, Shared it equally among them. X. HIAWATHA'S WOOING. " As unto the bow the cord is, So unto the man is woman, Though she bends him, she obeys him, Though she draws him, yet she follows, Useless each without the other...
˹éÒ 45 - ... Leaped as if to meet the arrow ; Ah ! the singing, fatal arrow, Like a wasp it buzzed and stung him ! Dead he lay there in the forest, By the ford across the river ; Beat his timid heart no longer, But the heart of Hiawatha Throbbed and shouted and exulted, As he bore the red deer homeward, And lagoo and Nokomis Hailed his coming with applauses. From the red deer's hide Nokomis Made a cloak for Hiawatha, From the red deer's flesh Nokomis Made a banquet in his honor. All the village came and feasted,...
˹éÒ 77 - And still later, when the Autumn Changed the long, green leaves to yellow, And the soft and juicy kernels Grew like wampum hard and yellow, Then the ripened ears he gathered, Stripped the withered husks from off them, As he once had stripped the wrestler, Gave the first Feast of Mondamin, And made known unto the people This new gift of the Great Spirit.
˹éÒ 89 - Hiawatha!" With his knife the tree he girdled; Just beneath its lowest branches, Just above the roots, he cut it, Till the sap came oozing outward; Down the trunk, from top to bottom, Sheer he cleft the bark asunder, With a wooden wedge he raised it, Stripped it from the trunk unbroken. "Give me of your boughs, 0 Cedar! Of your strong and pliant branches, My canoe to make more steady, Make more strong and firm beneath me!
˹éÒ 91 - My canoe to bind together, So to bind the ends together That the water may not enter, That the river may not wet me!" And the Larch, with all its fibres, Shivered in the air of morning, Touched his forehead with its tassels, Said, with one long sigh of sorrow, "Take them all, O Hiawatha!" From the earth he tore the fibres, Tore the tough roots of the Larch-tree, Closely sewed the bark together, Bound it closely to the framework, "Give me of your balm, O Fir-tree! Of your balsam and your resin, So...