biglam/gutenberg-poetry-corpus · Datasets at Hugging Face

line stringlengths 5 65	gutenberg_id int64 19 48.3k
The Song of Hiawatha is based on the legends and stories of	19
many North American Indian tribes, but especially those of the	19
Ojibway Indians of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.	19
They were collected by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the reknowned	19
Schoolcraft married Jane, O-bah-bahm-wawa-ge-zhe-go-qua (The	19
fur trader, and O-shau-gus-coday-way-qua (The Woman of the Green	19
Prairie), who was a daughter of Waub-o-jeeg (The White Fisher),	19
who was Chief of the Ojibway tribe at La Pointe, Wisconsin.	19
Jane and her mother are credited with having researched,	19
authenticated, and compiled much of the material Schoolcraft	19
included in his Algic Researches (1839) and a revision published	19
in 1856 as The Myth of Hiawatha. It was this latter revision	19
that Longfellow used as the basis for The Song of Hiawatha.	19
Longfellow began Hiawatha on June 25, 1854, he completed it	19
soon as the poem was published its popularity was assured.	19
However, it also was severely criticized as a plagiary of the	19
Finnish epic poem Kalevala. Longfellow made no secret of the	19
fact that he had used the meter of the Kalevala; but as for the	19
legends, he openly gave credit to Schoolcraft in his notes to the	19
I would add a personal note here. My father's roots include	19
Ojibway Indians: his mother, Margaret Caroline Davenport, was a	19
daughter of Susan des Carreaux, O-gee-em-a-qua (The Chief Woman),	19
Finally, my mother used to rock me to sleep reading portions of	19
Hiawatha to me, especially:	19
"Wah-wah-taysee, little fire-fly,	19
Little, flitting, white-fire insect	19
Little, dancing, white-fire creature,	19
Light me with your little candle,	19
Ere upon my bed I lay me,	19
Ere in sleep I close my eyelids!"	19
Should you ask me, whence these stories?	19
Whence these legends and traditions,	19
With the odors of the forest	19
With the dew and damp of meadows,	19
With the curling smoke of wigwams,	19
With the rushing of great rivers,	19
With their frequent repetitions,	19
And their wild reverberations	19
As of thunder in the mountains?	19
I should answer, I should tell you,	19
"From the forests and the prairies,	19
From the great lakes of the Northland,	19
From the land of the Ojibways,	19
From the land of the Dacotahs,	19
From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands	19
Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,	19
Feeds among the reeds and rushes.	19
I repeat them as I heard them	19
From the lips of Nawadaha,	19
The musician, the sweet singer."	19
Should you ask where Nawadaha	19
Found these songs so wild and wayward,	19
Found these legends and traditions,	19
I should answer, I should tell you,	19
"In the bird's-nests of the forest,	19
In the lodges of the beaver,	19
In the hoofprint of the bison,	19
In the eyry of the eagle!	19
"All the wild-fowl sang them to him,	19
In the moorlands and the fen-lands,	19
In the melancholy marshes;	19
Chetowaik, the plover, sang them,	19
Mahng, the loon, the wild-goose, Wawa,	19
The blue heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,	19
And the grouse, the Mushkodasa!"	19
If still further you should ask me,	19
Tell us of this Nawadaha,"	19
I should answer your inquiries	19
Straightway in such words as follow.	19
"In the vale of Tawasentha,	19
In the green and silent valley,	19
By the pleasant water-courses,	19
Dwelt the singer Nawadaha.	19
Round about the Indian village	19
Spread the meadows and the corn-fields,	19
And beyond them stood the forest,	19
Stood the groves of singing pine-trees,	19
Green in Summer, white in Winter,	19
Ever sighing, ever singing.	19
"And the pleasant water-courses,	19
You could trace them through the valley,	19
By the rushing in the Spring-time,	19
By the alders in the Summer,	19
By the white fog in the Autumn,	19
By the black line in the Winter;	19
And beside them dwelt the singer,	19
In the vale of Tawasentha,	19
In the green and silent valley.	19
"There he sang of Hiawatha,	19
Sang his wondrous birth and being,	19
How he prayed and how be fasted,	19
How he lived, and toiled, and suffered,	19
That the tribes of men might prosper,	19
That he might advance his people!"	19
Ye who love the haunts of Nature,	19
Love the sunshine of the meadow,	19
Love the shadow of the forest,	19
Love the wind among the branches,	19
And the rain-shower and the snow-storm,	19
And the rushing of great rivers	19

The Song of Hiawatha is based on the legends and stories of

19

many North American Indian tribes, but especially those of the

19

Ojibway Indians of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

19

They were collected by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the reknowned

19

Schoolcraft married Jane, O-bah-bahm-wawa-ge-zhe-go-qua (The

19

fur trader, and O-shau-gus-coday-way-qua (The Woman of the Green

19

Prairie), who was a daughter of Waub-o-jeeg (The White Fisher),

19

who was Chief of the Ojibway tribe at La Pointe, Wisconsin.

19

Jane and her mother are credited with having researched,

19

authenticated, and compiled much of the material Schoolcraft

19

included in his Algic Researches (1839) and a revision published

19

in 1856 as The Myth of Hiawatha. It was this latter revision

19

that Longfellow used as the basis for The Song of Hiawatha.

19

Longfellow began Hiawatha on June 25, 1854, he completed it

19

soon as the poem was published its popularity was assured.

19

However, it also was severely criticized as a plagiary of the

19

Finnish epic poem Kalevala. Longfellow made no secret of the

19

fact that he had used the meter of the Kalevala; but as for the

19

legends, he openly gave credit to Schoolcraft in his notes to the

19

I would add a personal note here. My father's roots include

19

Ojibway Indians: his mother, Margaret Caroline Davenport, was a

19

daughter of Susan des Carreaux, O-gee-em-a-qua (The Chief Woman),

19

Finally, my mother used to rock me to sleep reading portions of

19

Hiawatha to me, especially:

19

"Wah-wah-taysee, little fire-fly,

19

Little, flitting, white-fire insect

19

Little, dancing, white-fire creature,

19

Light me with your little candle,

19

Ere upon my bed I lay me,

19

Ere in sleep I close my eyelids!"

19

Should you ask me, whence these stories?

19

Whence these legends and traditions,

19

With the odors of the forest

19

With the dew and damp of meadows,

19

With the curling smoke of wigwams,

19

With the rushing of great rivers,

19

With their frequent repetitions,

19

And their wild reverberations

19

As of thunder in the mountains?

19

I should answer, I should tell you,

19

"From the forests and the prairies,

19

From the great lakes of the Northland,

19

From the land of the Ojibways,

19

From the land of the Dacotahs,

19

From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands

19

Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,

19

Feeds among the reeds and rushes.

19

I repeat them as I heard them

19

From the lips of Nawadaha,

19

The musician, the sweet singer."

19

Should you ask where Nawadaha

19

Found these songs so wild and wayward,

19

Found these legends and traditions,

19

I should answer, I should tell you,

19

"In the bird's-nests of the forest,

19

In the lodges of the beaver,

19

In the hoofprint of the bison,

19

In the eyry of the eagle!

19

"All the wild-fowl sang them to him,

19

In the moorlands and the fen-lands,

19

In the melancholy marshes;

19

Chetowaik, the plover, sang them,

19

Mahng, the loon, the wild-goose, Wawa,

19

The blue heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,

19

And the grouse, the Mushkodasa!"

19

If still further you should ask me,

19

Tell us of this Nawadaha,"

19

I should answer your inquiries

19

Straightway in such words as follow.

19

"In the vale of Tawasentha,

19

In the green and silent valley,

19

By the pleasant water-courses,

19

Dwelt the singer Nawadaha.

19

Round about the Indian village

19

Spread the meadows and the corn-fields,

19

And beyond them stood the forest,

19

Stood the groves of singing pine-trees,

19

Green in Summer, white in Winter,

19

Ever sighing, ever singing.

19

"And the pleasant water-courses,

19

You could trace them through the valley,

19

By the rushing in the Spring-time,

19

By the alders in the Summer,

19

By the white fog in the Autumn,

19

By the black line in the Winter;

19

And beside them dwelt the singer,

19

In the vale of Tawasentha,

19

In the green and silent valley.

19

"There he sang of Hiawatha,

19

Sang his wondrous birth and being,

19

How he prayed and how be fasted,

19

How he lived, and toiled, and suffered,

19

That the tribes of men might prosper,

19

That he might advance his people!"

19

Ye who love the haunts of Nature,

19

Love the sunshine of the meadow,

19

Love the shadow of the forest,

19

Love the wind among the branches,

19

And the rain-shower and the snow-storm,

19

And the rushing of great rivers

19