Song of Hiawatha

Format: Hardcover Language: English ISBN: 0517001977 ISBN13: 9780517001974 Release Date: October 1993 Publisher: Gramercy Books Length: 242 Pages Weight: 2.00 lbs. Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3" In the Summer of 1854, Longfellow wrote in his diary: "I have at length hit upon a plan for a poem on the American Indians, which seems to me the right one and the only. It is to weave together their beautiful traditions as whole." What emerged the next year was "The Song of Hiawatha," a composite of legends, folklore, myth, and characters that presents, in short, lilting trochees (who can forget "By the shore of Gitche Gumme / By the shining Big-Sea-Water"?), the life-story of a real Indian, who provides the focus for the narrative thread of this epic drama of high adventure, tragedy, and conflict. The aim was not to tell a particular or specific story, but to unite the strands of various Indian legends, to present a sympathetic portrait of many Native American tribes, an