Hiawatha's Lamentation Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCADAEEFAFGAAHIFIIJ AAAAKAAAILMMNKALLCFI AACOPNNAAQRJKKSNAIIT KAACCCNKUAPSJAANNPAI UKAANAAAAOCCNKIAAKKA JJAAMCCMSKAAMCKCCCKC IOAAAVCMIOAAMAIMNCIO AAAOCMMANMCAMNAACITN WIMKACCCMACXIACCIMCM AAMMYZMNMIMIMMACCAAA NCA2AMKACOMAAAACKIn those days the Evil Spirits | A |
All the Manitos of mischief | B |
Fearing Hiawatha's wisdom | C |
And his love for Chibiabos | A |
Jealous of their faithful friendship | D |
And their noble words and actions | A |
Made at length a league against them | E |
To molest them and destroy them | E |
Hiawatha wise and wary | F |
Often said to Chibiabos | A |
O my brother do not leave me | F |
Lest the Evil Spirits harm you | G |
Chibiabos young and heedless | A |
Laughing shook his coal black tresses | A |
Answered ever sweet and childlike | H |
Do not fear for me O brother | I |
Harm and evil come not near me | F |
Once when Peboan the Winter | I |
Roofed with ice the Big Sea Water | I |
When the snow flakes whirling downward | J |
Hissed among the withered oak leaves | A |
Changed the pine trees into wigwams | A |
Covered all the earth with silence | A |
Armed with arrows shod with snow shoes | A |
Heeding not his brother's warning | K |
Fearing not the Evil Spirits | A |
Forth to hunt the deer with antlers | A |
All alone went Chibiabos | A |
Right across the Big Sea Water | I |
Sprang with speed the deer before him | L |
With the wind and snow he followed | M |
O'er the treacherous ice he followed | M |
Wild with all the fierce commotion | N |
And the rapture of the hunting | K |
But beneath the Evil Spirits | A |
Lay in ambush waiting for him | L |
Broke the treacherous ice beneath him | L |
Dragged him downward to the bottom | C |
Buried in the sand his body | F |
Unktahee the god of water | I |
He the god of the Dacotahs | A |
Drowned him in the deep abysses | A |
Of the lake of Gitche Gumee | C |
From the headlands Hiawatha | O |
Sent forth such a wail of anguish | P |
Such a fearful lamentation | N |
That the bison paused to listen | N |
And the wolves howled from the prairies | A |
And the thunder in the distance | A |
Starting answered Baim wawa | Q |
Then his face with black he painted | R |
With his robe his head he covered | J |
In his wigwam sat lamenting | K |
Seven long weeks he sat lamenting | K |
Uttering still this moan of sorrow | S |
He is dead the sweet musician | N |
He the sweetest of all singers | A |
He has gone from us forever | I |
He has moved a little nearer | I |
To the Master of all music | T |
To the Master of all singing | K |
O my brother Chibiabos | A |
And the melancholy fir trees | A |
Waved their dark green fans above him | C |
Waved their purple cones above him | C |
Sighing with him to console him | C |
Mingling with his lamentation | N |
Their complaining their lamenting | K |
Came the Spring and all the forest | U |
Looked in vain for Chibiabos | A |
Sighed the rivulet Sebowisha | P |
Sighed the rushes in the meadow | S |
From the tree tops sang the bluebird | J |
Sang the bluebird the Owaissa | A |
Chibiabos Chibiabos | A |
He is dead the sweet musician | N |
From the wigwam sang the robin | N |
Sang the robin the Opechee | P |
Chibiabos Chibiabos | A |
He is dead the sweetest singer | I |
And at night through all the forest | U |
Went the whippoorwill complaining | K |
Wailing went the Wawonaissa | A |
Chibiabos Chibiabos | A |
He is dead the sweet musician | N |
He the sweetest of all singers | A |
Then the Medicine men the Medas | A |
The magicians the Wabenos | A |
And the Jossakeeds the Prophets | A |
Came to visit Hiawatha | O |
Built a Sacred Lodge beside him | C |
To appease him to console him | C |
Walked in silent grave procession | N |
Bearing each a pouch of healing | K |
Skin of beaver lynx or otter | I |
Filled with magic roots and simples | A |
Filled with very potent medicines | A |
When he heard their steps approaching | K |
Hiawatha ceased lamenting | K |
Called no more on Chibiabos | A |
Naught he questioned naught he answered | J |
But his mournful head uncovered | J |
From his face the mourning colors | A |
Washed he slowly and in silence | A |
Slowly and in silence followed | M |
Onward to the Sacred Wigwam | C |
There a magic drink they gave him | C |
Made of Nahma wusk the spearmint | M |
And Wabeno wusk the yarrow | S |
Roots of power and herbs of healing | K |
Beat their drums and shook their rattles | A |
Chanted singly and in chorus | A |
Mystic songs like these they chanted | M |
I myself myself behold me | C |
T Is the great Gray Eagle talking | K |
Come ye white crows come and hear him | C |
The loud speaking thunder helps me | C |
All the unseen spirits help me | C |
I can hear their voices calling | K |
All around the sky I hear them | C |
I can blow you strong my brother | I |
I can heal you Hiawatha | O |
Hi au ha replied the chorus | A |
Wayha way the mystic chorus | A |
Friends of mine are all the serpents | A |
Hear me shake my skin of hen hawk | V |
Mahng the white loon I can kill him | C |
I can shoot your heart and kill it | M |
I can blow you strong my brother | I |
I can heal you Hiawatha | O |
Hi au ha replied the chorus | A |
Wayhaway the mystic chorus | A |
I myself myself the prophet | M |
When I speak the wigwam trembles | A |
Shakes the Sacred Lodge with terror | I |
Hands unseen begin to shake it | M |
When I walk the sky I tread on | N |
Bends and makes a noise beneath me | C |
I can blow you strong my brother | I |
Rise and speak O Hiawatha | O |
Hi au ha replied the chorus | A |
Way ha way the mystic chorus | A |
Then they shook their medicine pouches | A |
O'er the head of Hiawatha | O |
Danced their medicine dance around him | C |
And upstarting wild and haggard | M |
Like a man from dreams awakened | M |
He was healed of all his madness | A |
As the clouds are swept from heaven | N |
Straightway from his brain departed | M |
All his moody melancholy | C |
As the ice is swept from rivers | A |
Straightway from his heart departed | M |
All his sorrow and affliction | N |
Then they summoned Chibiabos | A |
From his grave beneath the waters | A |
From the sands of Gitche Gumee | C |
Summoned Hiawatha's brother | I |
And so mighty was the magic | T |
Of that cry and invocation | N |
That he heard it as he lay there | W |
Underneath the Big Sea Water | I |
From the sand he rose and listened | M |
Heard the music and the singing | K |
Came obedient to the summons | A |
To the doorway of the wigwam | C |
But to enter they forbade him | C |
Through a chink a coal they gave him | C |
Through the door a burning fire brand | M |
Ruler in the Land of Spirits | A |
Ruler o'er the dead they made him | C |
Telling him a fire to kindle | X |
For all those that died thereafter | I |
Camp fires for their night encampments | A |
On their solitary journey | C |
To the kingdom of Ponemah | C |
To the land of the Hereafter | I |
From the village of his childhood | M |
From the homes of those who knew him | C |
Passing silent through the forest | M |
Like a smoke wreath wafted sideways | A |
Slowly vanished Chibiabos | A |
Where he passed the branches moved not | M |
Where he trod the grasses bent not | M |
And the fallen leaves of last year | Y |
Made no sound beneath his footstep | Z |
Four whole days he journeyed onward | M |
Down the pathway of the dead men | N |
On the dead man's strawberry feasted | M |
Crossed the melancholy river | I |
On the swinging log he crossed it | M |
Came unto the Lake of Silver | I |
In the Stone Canoe was carried | M |
To the Islands of the Blessed | M |
To the land of ghosts and shadows | A |
On that journey moving slowly | C |
Many weary spirits saw he | C |
Panting under heavy burdens | A |
Laden with war clubs bows and arrows | A |
Robes of fur and pots and kettles | A |
And with food that friends had given | N |
For that solitary journey | C |
Ay why do the living said they | A2 |
Lay such heavy burdens on us | A |
Better were it to go naked | M |
Better were it to go fasting | K |
Than to bear such heavy burdens | A |
On our long and weary journey | C |
Forth then issued Hiawatha | O |
Wandered eastward wandered westward | M |
Teaching men the use of simples | A |
And the antidotes for poisons | A |
And the cure of all diseases | A |
Thus was first made known to mortals | A |
All the mystery of Medamin | C |
All the sacred art of healing | K |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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