The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems

Wiwâstè sat late in the lodge alone, Her dark eyes bent on the glowing fire: She heard not the wild winds shrill and moan; She heard not the tall elms toss and groan; Her face w...

"Kind hearts received me. All that wealth could bring-- Refinement, luxury and ease--was theirs; But I was proud and felt my poverty, And gladly mured myself among the books To...

The snow-clouds fly the canopy of heaven; The rivulets ripple with the merry tone Of wanton waters, and the breezes given To fan the budding hills are all thine own. Returning s...

Methinks I can see, through the vista of years-- From the memories of old such a vision appears-- A gray-haired old veteran in arm-chair at ease, With his grandchildren clustere...

So there he paused and calmly closed his eyes, And silently I sat and held his hand. After a time, when we were left alone, He spoke again with calmer voice and said: "Captain,...

"Wakâwa," he muttered, "the guilt is thine! She was pure--she was pure as the fawn unborn. O why did I hark to the cry of scorn, Or the words of the lying libertine? Wakâwa, Wak...

I had rather write one word upon the rock Of ages than ten thousand in the sand. The rock of ages! lo I cannot reach Its lofty shoulders with my puny hand: I can but touch the s...

I am sorry to see such a woeful change In the health of the hardiest; It is wonderful odd--it is "passing strange"-- As over the country you travel and range, To behold such a s...

"The day of battle came--that Sabbath day, Midsummer.[A] Hot and blistering as the flames Of prairie-fires wind-driven, the burning sun Blazed down upon us and the blinding dust...

"That dark disaster sickened many a soul; Stout hearts were sad and cowards cried for peace. The vulture, perched hard by the eagle's crag, Loud cawed his fellows from afar to f...

On the shore of Gitchee Gumee[2]-- Deep, mysterious, mighty waters-- Where the mânitoes--the spirits-- Ride the storms and speak in thunder, In the days of Némè-Shómis,[3] In th...

The day of truth is dawning. I behold O'er darksome hills the trailing robes of gold And silent footsteps of the gladsome dawn. The morning breaks by sages long foretold; Truth...

Wise men there are--wise in the eyes of men-- Who cram their hollow heads with ancient wit Cackled in Carthage, babbled in Babylon, Gabbled in Greece and riddled in old Rome, An...

Address to the Flag A Million More An Old English Oak Anthem Betzko Beyond Byron and the Angel Change Charge of the "Black-Horse" Charge of Fremont's Body-Guard Charity Chickade...

Sear autumn followed the summer with frost and the falling of leaves And red-ripe apples that blushed on the hills in the orchard of peace: Red-ripe apples, alas, with worms wri...

Do they think of us, say--in the far distant West-- On the Prairies of Peace, in the Valleys of Rest? On the long dusty march when the suntide is hot, O say, are their sons and...

By his side sat Winona. He laid his thin, shriveled hand on her tresses, "Winona my daughter," he said, "no longer thy father beholds thee; But he feels the long locks of thy ha...

[7] _Hârps-te-nâh_. The first-born daughter of a Dakota is called _Winona_; the second, _Hârpen_; the third, _Hârpstinâ_; the fourth, _Wâska_; the fifth, _Wehârka_. The first-bo...

There was dancing and feasting at night, and joy at the presents he lavished. All the maidens were wild with delight with the flaming red robes and the ribbons, With the beads a...

And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery, and when they had set her in the midst, they said unto him "Master, this woman was taken in adultery, i...

She was pale, and her hurried voice swelled with alarm as she questioned replying-- "Tamdóka thy guide?--I beheld thy death in his face at the races. He covers his heart with a...

[77] The game of the Plum-stones is one of the favorite games of the Dakotas. Hennepin was the first to describe this game, in his _Description de la Louisiane_, Paris, 1683, an...