Itemize Books Supposing The Song of Hiawatha

Original Title: The Song of Hiawatha
ISBN: 1595400354 (ISBN13: 9781595400352)
Edition Language: English
Characters: Hiawatha, Minnehaha, Mudjekeewis
Setting: United States of America
Download Free The Song of Hiawatha Audio Books
The Song of Hiawatha Paperback | Pages: 184 pages
Rating: 3.9 | 2595 Users | 205 Reviews

Narrative As Books The Song of Hiawatha

I seem to have successfully avoided reading much of anything by Longfellow for nearly 58 years. But late last year I read Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie and decided I should see what else this famous American poet had to say.

When I picked The Song Of Hiawatha, I admit I was a little concerned that I would have visions of the Bugs Bunny cartoon running through my head the entire time I was reading. Bugs starts out reading the poem, young Hiawatha comes floating down the river on a rabbit hunt, and the rest is poetic hilarity.

But I concentrated. I said 'I can read this poem without seeing Bugs Bunny, I can, I know I can!' And I did. I was caught up in the story itself right away, and of course in the rhythm Longfellow chose to use. Then my quest became a struggle not to fall into 'thumpety-thumps' as I read, and I mostly managed that, so I have to say my reading experience of this epic poem was a success.

Supposedly Longfellow based his poem on actual Native American legends, but he sort of mixed them all up a bit, and it turns out (during post-reading research) that his main source was not entirely accurate in the first place, having edited his information to suit his own way of thinking. For Longfellow, Hiawatha becomes a figure of mythic powers, responsible for bringing together in peace the various tribes of the region, creating picture writing to remember great deeds and send messages, clearing rivers, killing evil creatures, etc. This makes for a dramatic, exciting story, and when the romance between the lovely Minnehaha is added, the poem becomes even more charming.

But it should not be read for authentic Native American concepts. And I did not at all care for the ending. I wish I could avoid spoilers, but I must say that (view spoiler)[ when Longfellow had Hiawatha accept the white man's priest and religion as the answer to a vision, then has him sail away to the West never to be seen again, I was disgusted. It was the classic 'the Red Race is dead, long live the White' attitude of the day and was terribly disappointing to me. (hide spoiler)]

I simply do not think the real Hiawatha would have behaved that way. And yes, Virginia, there was a real Hiawatha. Here is the Wiki link to read about him, if anyone is interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiawatha

Longfellow was a poet. He took some interesting ideas and turned them into a lovely epic saga that captured the public's imagination in various ways for many years. And certainly the name of Longfellow's mythological hero will live forever. The actual Hiawatha deserves at least that much.



Details Out Of Books The Song of Hiawatha

Title:The Song of Hiawatha
Author:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Book Format:Paperback
Book Edition:Special Edition
Pages:Pages: 184 pages
Published:September 1st 2004 by 1st World Library (first published 1855)
Categories:Poetry. Classics. Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Literature

Rating Out Of Books The Song of Hiawatha
Ratings: 3.9 From 2595 Users | 205 Reviews

Evaluate Out Of Books The Song of Hiawatha
Eee wa yea my little owlet.My son had to memorize two stanzas of this poem for an end-of-the-year project in the 4th grade. Having never heard the poem before, my husband and I now rank this poem as one of our favorite of all time. Beautiful english lanuage of the little boy enbracing the wilds of the woodlands.

Beautiful images, interesting stories.

You know I had given this three stars but the more I think about the ending the more I hate it.

The 5star rating was my own. My oldest (who was the one actually assigned to read this) enjoyed it and I really liked it. Most of my other children (ages 9,7, and 5) didn't love it but they did understand it and could tell me what was going on and I've heard all of them reference it in their play so I call that a win!

From BBC Radio 4 - Drama:This epic narrative poem, with its picturesque and highly imaginative tales, threads the many aspects of native American mythology concerning life, nature and ritual. Weaving together "beautiful traditions into a whole" as Longfellow intended.

Readable and entertaining. I enjoyed the mixture of Native American folklore mixed with the style of ancient epics.

* Read for the '2020 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge' task: Read an audiobook of poetry