The Song of HiawathaDavid Bogue, 1855 - 316 頁 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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常見字詞
answered arrows beauty beaver behold beneath Big-Sea-Water birch-canoe birds bison blue-bird Bowl branches breath canoe Chibiabos corn-fields cried Dacotahs Dance darkness daughter deer deer-skin doorway eyes feathers fell fen-lands fiery fish forest garments Gitche Gumee Gitche Manito guests hand Heard heart heaven heron Hiawatha Homeward hunter Iagoo Indian Kabibonokka Kahgahgee Kenabeek Kwasind lake land Laughing Water leaped Listen little Hiawatha lodge looked magic magicians maiden maize meadow Megissogwon mighty Minnehaha Mondamin Moon morning mountains Mudjekeewis Nahma o'er old Nokomis Osseo Oweenee painted Pau-Puk-Keewis Peace-Pipe pine-trees pleasant plumage prairie Ravens red deer river rose round rushes sailing Sang sea-gulls serpents shadows Shawondasee shining shining land shouted Shuh-shuh-gah sighing silence singing song Song of Hiawatha spake Spirit Star stood sturgeon sunset sunshine tree-tops trembled tresses village Wabasso Wabenos Wabun wampum war-club warriors Wenonah West-Wind westward whispered wigwam wind wonder yellow Yenadizze