The Song Of Hiawatha Xx: The Famine Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAAAABCDEDFGHIJGKAAH AHHLMMHMENOCPQARAOSO STAUVAWAUGXRKYZWOA2H GUSB2YAYTSGNHAWC2SXG D2AAUD2D2E2D2AF2SD2A AG2TWWTSD2SAPESD2SWD 2D2D2SXGD2YTD2SD2D2X CWHH2I2SEOWTJ2J2YUHY D2TAAJ2RUK2K2D2D2TAJ 2D2D2HHTCL2OM2XGD2WT PLD2TAH2H2AAAOCRM2J2 SOh the long and dreary Winter | A |
Oh the cold and cruel Winter | A |
Ever thicker thicker thicker | A |
Froze the ice on lake and river | A |
Ever deeper deeper deeper | A |
Fell the snow o'er all the landscape | B |
Fell the covering snow and drifted | C |
Through the forest round the village | D |
Hardly from his buried wigwam | E |
Could the hunter force a passage | D |
With his mittens and his snow shoes | F |
Vainly walked he through the forest | G |
Sought for bird or beast and found none | H |
Saw no track of deer or rabbit | I |
In the snow beheld no footprints | J |
In the ghastly gleaming forest | G |
Fell and could not rise from weakness | K |
Perished there from cold and hunger | A |
Oh the famine and the fever | A |
Oh the wasting of the famine | H |
Oh the blasting of the fever | A |
Oh the wailing of the children | H |
Oh the anguish of the women | H |
All the earth was sick and famished | L |
Hungry was the air around them | M |
Hungry was the sky above them | M |
And the hungry stars in heaven | H |
Like the eyes of wolves glared at them | M |
Into Hiawatha's wigwam | E |
Came two other guests as silent | N |
As the ghosts were and as gloomy | O |
Waited not to be invited | C |
Did not parley at the doorway | P |
Sat there without word of welcome | Q |
In the seat of Laughing Water | A |
Looked with haggard eyes and hollow | R |
At the face of Laughing Water | A |
And the foremost said 'Behold me | O |
I am Famine Bukadawin ' | S |
And the other said 'Behold me | O |
I am Fever Ahkosewin ' | S |
And the lovely Minnehaha | T |
Shuddered as they looked upon her | A |
Shuddered at the words they uttered | U |
Lay down on her bed in silence | V |
Hid her face but made no answer | A |
Lay there trembling freezing burning | W |
At the looks they cast upon her | A |
At the fearful words they uttered | U |
Forth into the empty forest | G |
Rushed the maddened Hiawatha | X |
In his heart was deadly sorrow | R |
In his face a stony firmness | K |
On his brow the sweat of anguish | Y |
Started but it froze and fell not | Z |
Wrapped in furs and armed for hunting | W |
With his mighty bow of ash tree | O |
With his quiver full of arrows | A2 |
With his mittens Minjekahwun | H |
Into the vast and vacant forest | G |
On his snow shoes strode he forward | U |
'Gitche Manito the Mighty ' | S |
Cried he with his face uplifted | B2 |
In that bitter hour of anguish | Y |
'Give your children food O father | A |
Give us food or we must perish | Y |
Give me food for Minnehaha | T |
For my dying Minnehaha ' | S |
Through the far resounding forest | G |
Through the forest vast and vacant | N |
Rang that cry of desolation | H |
But there came no other answer | A |
Than the echo of his crying | W |
Than the echo of the woodlands | C2 |
'Minnehaha Minnehaha ' | S |
All day long roved Hiawatha | X |
In that melancholy forest | G |
Through the shadow of whose thickets | D2 |
In the pleasant days of Summer | A |
Of that ne'er forgotten Summer | A |
He had brought his young wife homeward | U |
From the land of the Dacotahs | D2 |
When the birds sang in the thickets | D2 |
And the streamlets laughed and glistened | E2 |
And the air was full of fragrance | D2 |
And the lovely Laughing Water | A |
Said with voice that did not tremble | F2 |
'I will follow you my husband ' | S |
In the wigwam with Nokomis | D2 |
With those gloomy guests that watched her | A |
With the Famine and the Fever | A |
She was lying the Beloved | G2 |
She the dying Minnehaha | T |
'Hark ' she said 'I hear a rushing | W |
Hear a roaring and a rushing | W |
Hear the Falls of Minnehaha | T |
Calling to me from a distance ' | S |
'No my child ' said old Nokomis | D2 |
' T is the night wind in the pine trees ' | S |
'Look ' she said 'I see my father | A |
Standing lonely at his doorway | P |
Beckoning to me from his wigwam | E |
In the land of the Dacotahs ' | S |
'No my child ' said old Nokomis | D2 |
' T is the smoke that waves and beckons ' | S |
'Ah ' said she 'the eyes of Pauguk | W |
Glare upon me in the darkness | D2 |
I can feel his icy fingers | D2 |
Clasping mine amid the darkness | D2 |
Hiawatha Hiawatha ' | S |
And the desolate Hiawatha | X |
Far away amid the forest | G |
Miles away among the mountains | D2 |
Heard that sudden cry of anguish | Y |
Heard the voice of Minnehaha | T |
Calling to him in the darkness | D2 |
'Hiawatha Hiawatha ' | S |
Over snow fields waste and pathless | D2 |
Under snow encumbered branches | D2 |
Homeward hurried Hiawatha | X |
Empty handed heavy hearted | C |
Heard Nokomis moaning wailing | W |
'Wahonowin Wahonowin | H |
Would that I had perished for you | H2 |
Would that I were dead as you are | I2 |
Wahonowin Wahonowin ' | S |
And he rushed into the wigwam | E |
Saw the old Nokomis slowly | O |
Rocking to and fro and moaning | W |
Saw his lovely Minnehaha | T |
Lying dead and cold before him | J2 |
And his bursting heart within him | J2 |
Uttered such a cry of anguish | Y |
That the forest moaned and shuddered | U |
That the very stars in heaven | H |
Shook and trembled with his anguish | Y |
Then he sat down still and speechless | D2 |
On the bed of Minnehaha | T |
At the feet of Laughing Water | A |
At those willing feet that never | A |
More would lightly run to meet him | J2 |
Never more would lightly follow | R |
With both hands his face he covered | U |
Seven long days and nights he sat there | K2 |
As if in a swoon he sat there | K2 |
Speechless motionless unconscious | D2 |
Of the daylight or the darkness | D2 |
Then they buried Minnehaha | T |
In the snow a grave they made her | A |
In the forest deep and darksome | J2 |
Underneath the moaning hemlocks | D2 |
Clothed her in her richest garments | D2 |
Wrapped her in her robes of ermine | H |
Covered her with snow like ermine | H |
Thus they buried Minnehaha | T |
And at night a fire was lighted | C |
On her grave four times was kindled | L2 |
For her soul upon its journey | O |
To the Islands of the Blessed | M2 |
From his doorway Hiawatha | X |
Saw it burning In the forest | G |
Lighting up the gloomy hemlocks | D2 |
From his sleepless bed uprising | W |
From the bed of Minnehaha | T |
Stood and watched it at the doorway | P |
That it might not be extinguished | L |
Might not leave her in the darkness | D2 |
'Farewell ' said he 'Minnehaha | T |
Farewell O my Laughing Water | A |
All my heart is buried with you | H2 |
All my thoughts go onward with you | H2 |
Come not back again to labor | A |
Come not back again to suffer | A |
Where the Famine and the Fever | A |
Wear the heart and waste the body | O |
Soon my task will be completed | C |
Soon your footsteps I shall follow | R |
To the Islands of the Blessed | M2 |
To the Kingdom of Ponemah | J2 |
To the Land of the Hereafter ' | S |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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