Hiawatha And The Pearl-feather Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDDEFGAFHDIJHKCDLB CAMBMMBBAEBFNAGOKKKK LNCCFAABCBKBLPFNFDKB FLAAAKKKKBBQRKALKFAA BSTLANKFUVFBKLFFBANA BWBKKKAXYZKXVAFKAVVA KKKFCFLCBAVAKVAAKVVK A2KKALAVABVAVQVBFACB VAKFVKVLBCSCVB2BVFKF KC2KACVVVLAVCD2BKALV FCVVVKBBVABLCVKVBVFV AKVCCVVBBBCAKVVCKOn the shores of Gitche Gumee | A |
Of the shining Big Sea Water | B |
Stood Nokomis the old woman | C |
Pointing with her finger westward | D |
O'er the water pointing westward | D |
To the purple clouds of sunset | E |
Fiercely the red sun descending | F |
Burned his way along the heavens | G |
Set the sky on fire behind him | A |
As war parties when retreating | F |
Burn the prairies on their war trail | H |
And the moon the Night sun eastward | D |
Suddenly starting from his ambush | I |
Followed fast those bloody footprints | J |
Followed in that fiery war trail | H |
With its glare upon his features | K |
And Nokomis the old woman | C |
Pointing with her finger westward | D |
Spake these words to Hiawatha | L |
Yonder dwells the great Pearl Feather | B |
Megissogwon the Magician | C |
Manito of Wealth and Wampum | A |
Guarded by his fiery serpents | M |
Guarded by the black pitch water | B |
You can see his fiery serpents | M |
The Kenabeek the great serpents | M |
Coiling playing in the water | B |
You can see the black pitch water | B |
Stretching far away beyond them | A |
To the purple clouds of sunset | E |
He it was who slew my father | B |
By his wicked wiles and cunning | F |
When he from the moon descended | N |
When he came on earth to seek me | A |
He the mightiest of Magicians | G |
Sends the fever from the marshes | O |
Sends the pestilential vapors | K |
Sends the poisonous exhalations | K |
Sends the white fog from the fen lands | K |
Sends disease and death among us | K |
Take your bow O Hiawatha | L |
Take your arrows jasper headed | N |
Take your war club Puggawaugun | C |
And your mittens Minjekahwun | C |
And your birch canoe for sailing | F |
And the oil of Mishe Nahma | A |
So to smear its sides that swiftly | A |
You may pass the black pitch water | B |
Slay this merciless magician | C |
Save the people from the fever | B |
That he breathes across the fen lands | K |
And avenge my father's murder | B |
Straightway then my Hiawatha | L |
Armed himself with all his war gear | P |
Launched his birch canoe for sailing | F |
With his palm its sides he patted | N |
Said with glee Cheemaun my darling | F |
O my Birch canoe leap forward | D |
Where you see the fiery serpents | K |
Where you see the black pitch water | B |
Forward leaped Cheemaun exulting | F |
And the noble Hiawatha | L |
Sang his war song wild and woful | A |
And above him the war eagle | A |
The Keneu the great war eagle | A |
Master of all fowls with feathers | K |
Screamed and hurtled through the heavens | K |
Soon he reached the fiery serpents | K |
The Kenabeek the great serpents | K |
Lying huge upon the water | B |
Sparkling rippling in the water | B |
Lying coiled across the passage | Q |
With their blazing crests uplifted | R |
Breathing fiery fogs and vapors | K |
So that none could pass beyond them | A |
But the fearless Hiawatha | L |
Cried aloud and spake in this wise | K |
Let me pass my way Kenabeek | F |
Let me go upon my journey | A |
And they answered hissing fiercely | A |
With their fiery breath made answer | B |
Back go back O Shaugodaya | S |
Back to old Nokomis Faint heart | T |
Then the angry Hiawatha | L |
Raised his mighty bow of ash tree | A |
Seized his arrows jasper headed | N |
Shot them fast among the serpents | K |
Every twanging of the bow string | F |
Was a war cry and a death cry | U |
Every whizzing of an arrow | V |
Was a death song of Kenabeek | F |
Weltering in the bloody water | B |
Dead lay all the fiery serpents | K |
And among them Hiawatha | L |
Harmless sailed and cried exulting | F |
Onward O Cheemaun my darling | F |
Onward to the black pitch water | B |
Then he took the oil of Nahma | A |
And the bows and sides anointed | N |
Smeared them well with oil that swiftly | A |
He might pass the black pitch water | B |
All night long he sailed upon it | W |
Sailed upon that sluggish water | B |
Covered with its mould of ages | K |
Black with rotting water rushes | K |
Rank with flags and leaves of lilies | K |
Stagnant lifeless dreary dismal | A |
Lighted by the shimmering moonlight | X |
And by will o' the wisps illumined | Y |
Fires by ghosts of dead men kindled | Z |
In their weary night encampments | K |
All the air was white with moonlight | X |
All the water black with shadow | V |
And around him the Suggema | A |
The mosquito sang his war song | F |
And the fire flies Wah wah taysee | K |
Waved their torches to mislead him | A |
And the bull frog the Dahinda | V |
Thrust his head into the moonlight | V |
Fixed his yellow eyes upon him | A |
Sobbed and sank beneath the surface | K |
And anon a thousand whistles | K |
Answered over all the fen lands | K |
And the heron the Shuh shuh gah | F |
Far off on the reedy margin | C |
Heralded the hero's coming | F |
Westward thus fared Hiawatha | L |
Toward the realm of Megissogwon | C |
Toward the land of the Pearl Feather | B |
Till the level moon stared at him | A |
In his face stared pale and haggard | V |
Till the sun was hot behind him | A |
Till it burned upon his shoulders | K |
And before him on the upland | V |
He could see the Shining Wigwam | A |
Of the Manito of Wampum | A |
Of the mightiest of Magicians | K |
Then once more Cheemaun he patted | V |
To his birch canoe said Onward | V |
And it stirred in all its fibres | K |
And with one great bound of triumph | A2 |
Leaped across the water lilies | K |
Leaped through tangled flags and rushes | K |
And upon the beach beyond them | A |
Dry shod landed Hiawatha | L |
Straight he took his bow of ash tree | A |
On the sand one end he rested | V |
With his knee he pressed the middle | A |
Stretched the faithful bow string tighter | B |
Took an arrow jasperheaded | V |
Shot it at the Shining Wigwam | A |
Sent it singing as a herald | V |
As a bearer of his message | Q |
Of his challenge loud and lofty | V |
Come forth from your lodge Pearl Feather | B |
Hiawatha waits your coming | F |
Straightway from the Shining Wigwam | A |
Came the mighty Megissogwon | C |
Tall of stature broad of shoulder | B |
Dark and terrible in aspect | V |
Clad from head to foot in wampum | A |
Armed with all his warlike weapons | K |
Painted like the sky of morning | F |
Streaked with crimson blue and yellow | V |
Crested with great eagle feathers | K |
Streaming upward streaming outward | V |
Well I know you Hiawatha | L |
Cried he in a voice of thunder | B |
In a tone of loud derision | C |
Hasten back O Shaugodaya | S |
Hasten back among the women | C |
Back to old Nokomis Faint heart | V |
I will slay you as you stand there | B2 |
As of old I slew her father | B |
But my Hiawatha answered | V |
Nothing daunted fearing nothing | F |
Big words do not smite like war clubs | K |
Boastful breath is not a bow string | F |
Taunts are not so sharp as arrows | K |
Deeds are better things than words are | C2 |
Actions mightier than boastings | K |
Then began the greatest battle | A |
That the sun had ever looked on | C |
That the war birds ever witnessed | V |
All a Summer's day it lasted | V |
From the sunrise to the sunset | V |
For the shafts of Hiawatha | L |
Harmless hit the shirt of wampum | A |
Harmless fell the blows he dealt it | V |
With his mittens Minjekahwun | C |
Harmless fell the heavy war club | D2 |
It could dash the rocks asunder | B |
But it could not break the meshes | K |
Of that magic shirt of wampum | A |
Till at sunset Hiawatha | L |
Leaning on his bow of ash tree | V |
Wounded weary and desponding | F |
With his mighty war club broken | C |
With his mittens torn and tattered | V |
And three useless arrows only | V |
Paused to rest beneath a pine tree | V |
From whose branches trailed the mosses | K |
And whose trunk was coated over | B |
With the Dead man's Moccasin leather | B |
With the fungus white and yellow | V |
Suddenly from the boughs above him | A |
Sang the Mama the woodpecker | B |
Aim your arrows Hiawatha | L |
At the head of Megissogwon | C |
Strike the tuft of hair upon it | V |
At their roots the long black tresses | K |
There alone can he be wounded | V |
Winged with feathers tipped with jasper | B |
Swift flew Hiawatha's arrow | V |
Just as Megissogwon stooping | F |
Raised a heavy stone to throw it | V |
Full upon the crown it struck him | A |
At the roots of his long tresses | K |
And he reeled and staggered forward | V |
Plunging like a wounded bison | C |
Yes like Pezhekee the bison | C |
When the snow is on the prairie | V |
Swifter flew the second arrow | V |
In the pathway of the other | B |
Piercing deeper than the other | B |
Wounding sorer than the other | B |
And the knees of Megissogwon | C |
Shook like windy reeds beneath him | A |
Bent and trembled like the rushes | K |
But the third and latest arrow | V |
Swiftest flew and wounded sorest | V |
And the mighty Megissogwon | C |
Saw | K |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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