Reading Diary B: The Song of Hiawatha

Hiawatha and the Pearl-Feather- I love the simple use of words that create such great imagery. To the purple clouds of sunset. And the moon, the Night-sun, eastward, Suddenly starting from his ambush, Followed fast those bloody footprints

Hiawatha's Wooing- I love this saying: with his moccasins of magic. I like this passage: Pleasant was the journey homeward, Through interminable forests, Over meadow, over mountain, Over river, hill, and hollow.

Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast- I can really imagine what he looks like in this passage: He was dressed in shirt of doeskin, White and soft, and fringed with ermine, All inwrought with beads of wampum; He was dressed in deer-skin leggings.

The Son of the Evening Star- These poems have the best imagery: Yes; it is the sun descending, Sinking down into the water; All the sky is stained with purple, All the water flushed with crimson!

Illustration by John Rae.