Hiawatha's Sailing Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABAACBDAABCEBFGEACC AAHCIFGHGGDBGEBHGGBB IGFBCJBCGBBBGICIKFIG BCGEBBGBIICFDBBBCCJB DCLIBIFGIKIJAIGGBGGC BBIBDBFGLLGBGGBIGBBB BBIIAFDIIGGMIBADAICDGive me of your bark O Birch tree | A |
Of your yellow bark O Birch tree | A |
Growing by the rushing river | B |
Tall and stately in the valley | A |
I a light canoe will build me | A |
Build a swift Cheemaun for sailing | C |
That shall float on the river | B |
Like a yellow leaf in Autumn | D |
Like a yellow water lily | A |
Lay aside your cloak O Birch tree | A |
Lay aside your white skin wrapper | B |
For the Summer time is coming | C |
And the sun is warm in heaven | E |
And you need no white skin wrapper | B |
Thus aloud cried Hiawatha | F |
In the solitary forest | G |
By the rushing Taquamenaw | E |
When the birds were singing gayly | A |
In the Moon of Leaves were singing | C |
And the sun from sleep awaking | C |
Started up and said Behold me | A |
Gheezis the great Sun behold me | A |
And the tree with all its branches | H |
Rustled in the breeze of morning | C |
Saying with a sigh of patience | I |
Take my cloak O Hiawatha | F |
With his knife the tree he girdled | G |
Just beneath its lowest branches | H |
Just above the roots he cut it | G |
Till the sap came oozing outward | G |
Down the trunk from top to bottom | D |
Sheer he cleft the bark asunder | B |
With a wooden wedge he raised it | G |
Stripped it from the trunk unbroken | E |
Give me of your boughs O Cedar | B |
Of your strong and pliant branches | H |
My canoe to make more steady | G |
Make more strong and firm beneath me | G |
Through the summit of the Cedar | B |
Went a sound a cry of horror | B |
Went a murmur of resistance | I |
But it whispered bending downward | G |
'Take my boughs O Hiawatha | F |
Down he hewed the boughs of cedar | B |
Shaped them straightway to a frame work | C |
Like two bows he formed and shaped them | J |
Like two bended bows together | B |
Give me of your roots O Tamarack | C |
Of your fibrous roots O Larch tree | G |
My canoe to bind together | B |
So to bind the ends together | B |
That the water may not enter | B |
That the river may not wet me | G |
And the Larch with all its fibres | I |
Shivered in the air of morning | C |
Touched his forehead with its tassels | I |
Slid with one long sigh of sorrow | K |
Take them all O Hiawatha | F |
From the earth he tore the fibres | I |
Tore the tough roots of the Larch tree | G |
Closely sewed the hark together | B |
Bound it closely to the frame work | C |
Give me of your balm O Fir tree | G |
Of your balsam and your resin | E |
So to close the seams together | B |
That the water may not enter | B |
That the river may not wet me | G |
And the Fir tree tall and sombre | B |
Sobbed through all its robes of darkness | I |
Rattled like a shore with pebbles | I |
Answered wailing answered weeping | C |
Take my balm O Hiawatha | F |
And he took the tears of balsam | D |
Took the resin of the Fir tree | B |
Smeared therewith each seam and fissure | B |
Made each crevice safe from water | B |
Give me of your quills O Hedgehog | C |
All your quills O Kagh the Hedgehog | C |
I will make a necklace of them | J |
Make a girdle for my beauty | B |
And two stars to deck her bosom | D |
From a hollow tree the Hedgehog | C |
With his sleepy eyes looked at him | L |
Shot his shining quills like arrows | I |
Saying with a drowsy murmur | B |
Through the tangle of his whiskers | I |
Take my quills O Hiawatha | F |
From the ground the quills he gathered | G |
All the little shining arrows | I |
Stained them red and blue and yellow | K |
With the juice of roots and berries | I |
Into his canoe he wrought them | J |
Round its waist a shining girdle | A |
Round its bows a gleaming necklace | I |
On its breast two stars resplendent | G |
Thus the Birch Canoe was builded | G |
In the valley by the river | B |
In the bosom of the forest | G |
And the forest's life was in it | G |
All its mystery and its magic | C |
All the lightness of the birch tree | B |
All the toughness of the cedar | B |
All the larch's supple sinews | I |
And it floated on the river | B |
Like a yellow leaf in Autumn | D |
Like a yellow water lily | B |
Paddles none had Hiawatha | F |
Paddles none he had or needed | G |
For his thoughts as paddles served him | L |
And his wishes served to guide him | L |
Swift or slow at will he glided | G |
Veered to right or left at pleasure | B |
Then he called aloud to Kwasind | G |
To his friend the strong man Kwasind | G |
Saying Help me clear this river | B |
Of its sunken logs and sand bars | I |
Straight into the river Kwasind | G |
Plunged as if he were an otter | B |
Dived as if he were a beaver | B |
Stood up to his waist in water | B |
To his arm pits in the river | B |
Swam and scouted in the river | B |
Tugged at sunken logs and branches | I |
With his hands he scooped the sand bars | I |
With his feet the ooze and tangle | A |
And thus sailed my Hiawatha | F |
Down the rushing Taquamenaw | D |
Sailed through all its bends and windings | I |
Sailed through all its deeps and shallows | I |
While his friend the strong man Kwasind | G |
Swam the deeps the shallows waded | G |
Up and down the river went they | M |
In and out among its islands | I |
Cleared its bed of root and sand bar | B |
Dragged the dead trees from its channel | A |
Made its passage safe and certain | D |
Made a pathway for the people | A |
From its springs among the mountains | I |
To the waters of Pauwating | C |
To the bay of Taquamenaw | D |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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