The earliest and simplest poetry is nothing more than such modulated
sounds; it is not in definite words, and hence, is not capable of
translation; it is but the expression of feeling through the voice, as
is the wail of the infant, the rippling laughter of youth, the crooning
of senility, the groans of pain or sorrow.

Perhaps this first is also the highest expression of the aesthetic
sense. The most admired cantatrices of to-day drown the words in a
wealth of vocalization, and the meaning is lost, even were the language
one known to their hearers, which it usually is not. I have heard a
living poet, himself of no mean eminence, maintain that the harmony of
versification is a far higher test of true poetic power than the ideas
conveyed.

These principles must be borne in mind when we apply the canons of
criticism to the poetry of the ruder races. It is not composed to be
read, or even recited, but to be sung; its aim is, not to awaken thought
or convey information, but solely to excite emotion. It can have a
meaning only when heard, and only in the surroundings which gave it
birth.

Hence it is, that the notices of the poetry of American nations are so
scant and unsatisfactory. While all travelers agree that the tribes have
songs and chants, war songs, peace songs, love songs, and others, few
satisfactory specimens have been recorded. Those who have examined the
subject most accurately have found that many so-called songs are mere
repetitions of a few words, or even of simple interjections, over and
over again, with an endless iteration, in a chanting voice. The Dakota
songs which have been preserved by Riggs, the Chippeway songs obtained