The Song of Hiawatha   ::   Longfellow Henry Wadsworth

"Gitche Manito, the Mighty!"

Cried he with his face uplifted

In that bitter hour of anguish,

"Give your children food, O father!

Give us food, or we must perish!

Give me food for Minnehaha,

For my dying Minnehaha!"

Through the far-resounding forest,

Through the forest vast and vacant

Rang that cry of desolation,

But there came no other answer

Than the echo of his crying,

Than the echo of the woodlands,

"Minnehaha! Minnehaha!"

All day long roved Hiawatha

In that melancholy forest,

Through the shadow of whose thickets,

In the pleasant days of Summer,

Of that ne'er forgotten Summer,

He had brought his young wife homeward

From the land of the Dacotahs;

When the birds sang in the thickets,

And the streamlets laughed and glistened,

And the air was full of fragrance,

And the lovely Laughing Water

Said with voice that did not tremble,

"I will follow you, my husband!"

In the wigwam with Nokomis,

With those gloomy guests that watched her,

With the Famine and the Fever,

She was lying, the Beloved,

She, the dying Minnehaha.

"Hark!" she said; "I hear a rushing,

Hear a roaring and a rushing,

Hear the Falls of Minnehaha

Calling to me from a distance!"

"No, my child!" said old Nokomis,

"`T is the night-wind in the pine-trees!"

"Look!" she said; "I see my father

Standing lonely at his doorway,

Beckoning to me from his wigwam

In the land of the Dacotahs!"

"No, my child!" said old Nokomis.

"`T is the smoke, that waves and beckons!"

"Ah!" said she, "the eyes of Pauguk

Glare upon me in the darkness,

I can feel his icy fingers

Clasping mine amid the darkness!

Hiawatha! Hiawatha!"

And the desolate Hiawatha,

Far away amid the forest,

Miles away among the mountains,

Heard that sudden cry of anguish,

Heard the voice of Minnehaha

Calling to him in the darkness,

"Hiawatha! Hiawatha!"

Over snow-fields waste and pathless,

Under snow-encumbered branches,

Homeward hurried Hiawatha,

Empty-handed, heavy-hearted,

Heard Nokomis moaning, wailing:

"Wahonowin! Wahonowin!

Would that I had perished for you,

Would that I were dead as you are!

Wahonowin! Wahonowin!"

And he rushed into the wigwam,

Saw the old Nokomis slowly

Rocking to and fro and moaning,

Saw his lovely Minnehaha

Lying dead and cold before him,

And his bursting heart within him

Uttered such a cry of anguish,

That the forest moaned and shuddered,

That the very stars in heaven

Shook and trembled with his anguish.

Then he sat down, still and speechless,

On the bed of Minnehaha,

At the feet of Laughing Water,

At those willing feet, that never

More would lightly run to meet him,

Never more would lightly follow.