Narrative and Legendary Poems: Mabel Martin, a Harvest Idyl - From Volume I., the Works of Whittier by John Greenleaf Whittier
page 44 of 75 (58%)
page 44 of 75 (58%)
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"'All-uncalled, he dares not show Empty hands to Manito Better gifts he cannot bear Than the scalps his slayers wear.' "All the while the totem sang, Lightning blazed and thunder rang; And a black cloud, reaching high, Pulled the white moon from the sky. "I, the medicine-man, whose ear All that spirits bear can hear,-- I, whose eyes are wide to see All the things that are to be,-- "Well I knew the dreadful signs In the whispers of the pines, In the river roaring loud, In the mutter of the cloud. "At the breaking of the day, From the grave I passed away; Flowers bloomed round me, birds sang glad, But my heart was hot and mad. "There is rust on Squando's knife, From the warm, red springs of life; On the funeral hemlock-trees Many a scalp the totem sees. |
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