| |
| 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, | 5 |
| 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, | 10 |
| 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, | 15 |
| 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, | 20 |
| 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 | 25 |
| 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!” | 30 |
| “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!” | 35 |
| 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 | 40 |
| Calling to him in the darkness, | |
| “Hiawatha! Hiawatha!” | |
| Over snow-fields waste and pathless, | |
| Under snow-encumbered branches, | |
| Homeward hurried Hiawatha, | 45 |
| 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! | 50 |
| Wahonowin! Wahonowin!” | |
| And he rushed into the wigwam, | |
| Saw the old Nokomis slowly | |
| Rocking to and fro and moaning, | |
| Saw his lovely Minnehaha | 55 |
| 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 | 60 |
| 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 | 65 |
| More would lightly run to meet him, | |
| Never more would lightly follow. | |
| With both hands his face he covered, | |
| Seven long days and nights he sat there, | |
| As if in a swoon he sat there, | 70 |
| Speechless, motionless, unconscious | |
| Of the daylight or the darkness. | |
| Then they buried Minnehaha; | |
| In the snow a grave they made her, | |
| In the forest deep and darksome, | 75 |
| Underneath the moaning hemlocks; | |
| Clothed her in her richest garments, | |
| Wrapped her in her robes of ermine, | |
| Covered her with snow, like ermine; | |
| Thus they buried Minnehaha. | 80 |
| And at night a fire was lighted, | |
| On her grave four times was kindled, | |
| For her soul upon its journey | |
| To the Islands of the Blessed. | |
| From his doorway Hiawatha | 85 |
| Saw it burning in the forest, | |
| Lighting up the gloomy hemlocks; | |
| From his sleepless bed uprising, | |
| From the bed of Minnehaha, | |
| Stood and watched it at the doorway, | 90 |
| That it might not be extinguished, | |
| Might not leave her in the darkness. | |
| “Farewell!” said he, “Minnehaha! | |
| Farewell, O my Laughing Water! | |
| All my heart is buried with you, | 95 |
| All my thoughts go onward with you! | |
| Come not back again to labor, | |
| Come not back again to suffer, | |
| Where the Famine and the Fever | |
| Wear the heart and waste the body. | 100 |
| Soon my task will be completed, | |
| Soon your footsteps I shall follow | |
| To the Islands of the Blessed, | |
| To the Kingdom of Ponemah, | |
| To the Land of the Hereafter!” | 105 |
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