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The Song of Hiawatha
The infectious rhythm of The Song of Hiawatha has drawn millions to the shores of Gitchee Gumee. Once there, they've stayed to hear about the young brave with the magic moccasins, who talks with animals and uses his supernatural gifts to bring peace and enlightenment to his people. This 1855 masterpiece combines romance and idealism in an idyllic natural setting.
242 pages, Hardcover
First published November 10, 1855
374 people are currently reading
3393 people want to read
About the author
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
2,908 books736 followersExtremely popular works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet, in the United States in his lifetime, include
The Song of Hiawatha
in 1855 and a translation from 1865 to 1867 of
Divine Comedy
of Dante Alighieri.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow educated. His originally wrote the "Paul Revere's Ride" and "Evangeline." From New England, he first completed work of the fireside.
Bowdoin College graduated Longefellow, who served as a professor, afterward studied in Europe, and later moved at Harvard. After a miscarriage, Mary Potter Longfellow, his first wife, died in 1835. He first collected Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841).
From teaching, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow retired in 1854 to focus on his writing in the headquarters of of George Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the Revolutionary War for the remainder.
Dress of Frances Appleton Longfellow, his second wife, caught fire; she then sustained burns and afterward died in 1861. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing and focused on from foreign languages.
Longfellow wrote musicality of many known lyrics and often presented stories of mythology and legend. He succeeded most overseas of his day. He imitated European styles and wrote too sentimentally for critics.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow educated. His originally wrote the "Paul Revere's Ride" and "Evangeline." From New England, he first completed work of the fireside.
Bowdoin College graduated Longefellow, who served as a professor, afterward studied in Europe, and later moved at Harvard. After a miscarriage, Mary Potter Longfellow, his first wife, died in 1835. He first collected Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841).
From teaching, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow retired in 1854 to focus on his writing in the headquarters of of George Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the Revolutionary War for the remainder.
Dress of Frances Appleton Longfellow, his second wife, caught fire; she then sustained burns and afterward died in 1861. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing and focused on from foreign languages.
Longfellow wrote musicality of many known lyrics and often presented stories of mythology and legend. He succeeded most overseas of his day. He imitated European styles and wrote too sentimentally for critics.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 314 reviews
May 6, 2015
To gain its full flavour, this is a poem to read aloud. I read it as a child, I read it to my son when I was pregnant with him, I read it to him when I fed him as a baby and for the last time I read it to him when he was old enough to enjoy it. He didn't. He hated it, so my favourite book was put on one side, but every now and again I like to read about the West Wind and Minehaha, Laughing Water.
November 9, 2023
I had never read this classic epic poem written in 1855 and I enjoyed reading this with a small group. over a month. Hiawatha was a stereotypical hero in the epic tradition and the poem follows his journey. There were lovely descriptions especially of animals and the environment. I love waterfalls and the section that describe his travel through the Dacotahs and the Falls of Minnehaha were evocative. the falls flash and gleam among the oak-trees, laugh and leap into the valley. His wooing and marrying of the daughter of the ancient arrow-maker who was named after the falls kept the picture in my mind every time she was mentioned. Tresses flowing like the water, and as musical a laughter
In my edition, all the illustrations were by Fredric Remington which also included pen & ink sketches along the generous margins of the poem.
I enjoyed this look at Native American culture of the 15th-17th C and the inclusion of much of the folklore that had been known to Longfellow through personal connection and research.
Much of the focus was on the mythology surrounding the real-life Hiawatha and highlighted the interconnectedness of Native Americans with the natural world.
Once again I bring forward a review by Werner about this work that is terrific.
In my edition, all the illustrations were by Fredric Remington which also included pen & ink sketches along the generous margins of the poem.
I enjoyed this look at Native American culture of the 15th-17th C and the inclusion of much of the folklore that had been known to Longfellow through personal connection and research.
Much of the focus was on the mythology surrounding the real-life Hiawatha and highlighted the interconnectedness of Native Americans with the natural world.
Once again I bring forward a review by Werner about this work that is terrific.
November 20, 2016
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
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.
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
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.
September 21, 2022
I liked this 'song' until the last 'refrain'. The way Hiawatha left his people (and who he tells them to 'follow') did not make sense to me. Seemed to me a hidden nod to manifest destiny; I am not a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow scholar so I will not make this a definitive statement.
February 12, 2021
First published in 1855, this is one of Longfellow's longer poems; but the 245 pages of actual text in the edition I read (which was the 1898 printing by Thomas Y. Crowell and Co.) have wide margins and a good deal of white space, so the real length is much less than the page count might suggest. Reading the whole book took me just over a week, which for me indicates a relatively quick read (a reader able to devote more time to it each day might well finish it considerably sooner). My prior acquaintance with Longfellow's work consisted only of the selections included in various American Literature textbooks, so this was my first experience with his writing at book length; and I read it as a common read in the Goodreads group Early New England Literature.
This is an ambitious, intentionally epic-scaled work, which has two major literary influences. One of these is The Kalevala, the compilation of Finnish folklore first published in 1835 by Elias Lonnrot. The latter work sprang from a strongly nationalistic impulse: "Finnish born nationalist and linguist Carl Axel Gottlund (1796–1875) expressed his desire for a Finnish epic in a similar vein to the Iliad, Beowulf and the Nibelungenlied compiled from the various poems and songs spread over most of Finland. He hoped that such an endeavour would incite a sense of nationality and independence in the native Finnish people." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala ). Lonnrot's work fulfilled that desire. Longfellow had learned to read Finnish in order to read this epic in the original. Its influence on The Song of Hiawatha is evident in his choice to write it in trochaic tetrameter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trochai... ), the meter employed in Finnish folk poetry. Even more importantly, though, The Kalevala apparently inspired Longfellow with the desire to create a similar national epic for the then-young United States.
However, the European-descended --and, for that matter, the African-descended-- inhabitants of the U.S. did not, in 1855, have any homegrown folklore comparable in antiquity to the material Lonnrot worked with (and still don't); they simply hadn't been here long enough. (They did have very old folklore, but it came from their various native lands rather than being uniquely American.) Actual North American folklore rooted that far back in the past could only come from one source, the American Indians. That brings us to the second major literary influence. Longfellow actually did have personal contacts with Indians, and was in fact a friend of an Ojibway chief who visited in his home at times. But his main sources for the folklore were the writings of white observers of Indians, principally Algic Researches: Comprising Inquiries Respecting The Mental Characteristics Of The North American Indies (1839) by Henry R. Schoolcraft. The great majority of the Indian legends --mostly Ojibway, since Schoolcraft's first wife and major informant was half Ojibway-- used by Longfellow as source materials for this poem come directly from the latter book.
Hiawatha was an actual person, who lived in the 16th century, and was a leader in the formation of the Iroquois confederacy, though all that we know of his life comes strictly from oral tradition. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiawatha ). Going into this read, I expected an epic focused on the historical Hiawatha. That turned out to be completely mistaken; the only similarity is the name. Schoolcraft (who was not a trained folklorist) confused "Hiawatha" as another name for the legendary Ojibway culture-hero and trickster figure Manabozho. Longfellow (who originally was going to title this poem Manabozho) followed along with this confusion. His Hiawatha originates in "the unremembered ages," sired out of wedlock by a formerly-human demigod who commands the winds on the daughter of Nokomis, Hiawatha's grandmother, who herself was the daughter of the Moon and fell to the Earth when she was already pregnant. The title character has various adventures (not all of them associated with Manabozho in the originals, and Longfellow also eliminates any trickster-type episodes associated with the character), culminating in his departure for the next world after welcoming the first Christian missionary to the Indians.
Longfellow shows himself here to be a seriously accomplished poet, as far as poetic technique goes, and a master of eloquent language. I still want to read more of his work, but I wouldn't recommend this poem as an introduction to it. The author doesn't really achieve his objective, partly because neither he nor the non-Indian audience he's mainly writing to has the natural cultural identification with these legends that Lonnrot and his audience did. Related to that, Longfellow doesn't take as much care to preserve the original material and minimize his own editing and additions as Lonnrot did. A reader interested in Indian folklore itself cannot take this poem as a serious example of or introduction to it, because there's too much inaccuracy and authorial invention. For me, the story also fails as an epic. It's very episodic (since it works together many unconnected legends); there's no overarching storyline or theme. Hiawatha also doesn't do much that's really consequential, besides introduce corn cultivation and picture writing; there's definitely no stress on his functioning as a spokesman for inter-tribal peace and brotherhood (which the historical Hiawatha was). The apparent telescoping of time, where we go from primeval ages to at least the 1600s with no indication of the passage of more than a year or two, was jarring. I also didn't feel that Hiawatha's attraction and marriage to Minnehaha really comes across as a great love that can be the stuff of epic. Usually, I prefer poetry that tells a story to, say, lyric poetry; but in this case, I never looked forward to my reading sessions with this book.
The Crowell edition includes the author's own 10 pages of Notes, which are useful. It also has a roughly three-page glossary of Indian-language words which I didn't consult; a 10-page Introduction by a Nathan Haskell Dole (whose qualifications aren't stated) that concentrates on the influence of the Kalevala, even to the point of long quotations from the latter; and a 34-page appendix added by Dole, quoting the Schoolcraft originals for various episodes in the poem.
This is an ambitious, intentionally epic-scaled work, which has two major literary influences. One of these is The Kalevala, the compilation of Finnish folklore first published in 1835 by Elias Lonnrot. The latter work sprang from a strongly nationalistic impulse: "Finnish born nationalist and linguist Carl Axel Gottlund (1796–1875) expressed his desire for a Finnish epic in a similar vein to the Iliad, Beowulf and the Nibelungenlied compiled from the various poems and songs spread over most of Finland. He hoped that such an endeavour would incite a sense of nationality and independence in the native Finnish people." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala ). Lonnrot's work fulfilled that desire. Longfellow had learned to read Finnish in order to read this epic in the original. Its influence on The Song of Hiawatha is evident in his choice to write it in trochaic tetrameter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trochai... ), the meter employed in Finnish folk poetry. Even more importantly, though, The Kalevala apparently inspired Longfellow with the desire to create a similar national epic for the then-young United States.
However, the European-descended --and, for that matter, the African-descended-- inhabitants of the U.S. did not, in 1855, have any homegrown folklore comparable in antiquity to the material Lonnrot worked with (and still don't); they simply hadn't been here long enough. (They did have very old folklore, but it came from their various native lands rather than being uniquely American.) Actual North American folklore rooted that far back in the past could only come from one source, the American Indians. That brings us to the second major literary influence. Longfellow actually did have personal contacts with Indians, and was in fact a friend of an Ojibway chief who visited in his home at times. But his main sources for the folklore were the writings of white observers of Indians, principally Algic Researches: Comprising Inquiries Respecting The Mental Characteristics Of The North American Indies (1839) by Henry R. Schoolcraft. The great majority of the Indian legends --mostly Ojibway, since Schoolcraft's first wife and major informant was half Ojibway-- used by Longfellow as source materials for this poem come directly from the latter book.
Hiawatha was an actual person, who lived in the 16th century, and was a leader in the formation of the Iroquois confederacy, though all that we know of his life comes strictly from oral tradition. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiawatha ). Going into this read, I expected an epic focused on the historical Hiawatha. That turned out to be completely mistaken; the only similarity is the name. Schoolcraft (who was not a trained folklorist) confused "Hiawatha" as another name for the legendary Ojibway culture-hero and trickster figure Manabozho. Longfellow (who originally was going to title this poem Manabozho) followed along with this confusion. His Hiawatha originates in "the unremembered ages," sired out of wedlock by a formerly-human demigod who commands the winds on the daughter of Nokomis, Hiawatha's grandmother, who herself was the daughter of the Moon and fell to the Earth when she was already pregnant. The title character has various adventures (not all of them associated with Manabozho in the originals, and Longfellow also eliminates any trickster-type episodes associated with the character), culminating in his departure for the next world after welcoming the first Christian missionary to the Indians.
Longfellow shows himself here to be a seriously accomplished poet, as far as poetic technique goes, and a master of eloquent language. I still want to read more of his work, but I wouldn't recommend this poem as an introduction to it. The author doesn't really achieve his objective, partly because neither he nor the non-Indian audience he's mainly writing to has the natural cultural identification with these legends that Lonnrot and his audience did. Related to that, Longfellow doesn't take as much care to preserve the original material and minimize his own editing and additions as Lonnrot did. A reader interested in Indian folklore itself cannot take this poem as a serious example of or introduction to it, because there's too much inaccuracy and authorial invention. For me, the story also fails as an epic. It's very episodic (since it works together many unconnected legends); there's no overarching storyline or theme. Hiawatha also doesn't do much that's really consequential, besides introduce corn cultivation and picture writing; there's definitely no stress on his functioning as a spokesman for inter-tribal peace and brotherhood (which the historical Hiawatha was). The apparent telescoping of time, where we go from primeval ages to at least the 1600s with no indication of the passage of more than a year or two, was jarring. I also didn't feel that Hiawatha's attraction and marriage to Minnehaha really comes across as a great love that can be the stuff of epic. Usually, I prefer poetry that tells a story to, say, lyric poetry; but in this case, I never looked forward to my reading sessions with this book.
The Crowell edition includes the author's own 10 pages of Notes, which are useful. It also has a roughly three-page glossary of Indian-language words which I didn't consult; a 10-page Introduction by a Nathan Haskell Dole (whose qualifications aren't stated) that concentrates on the influence of the Kalevala, even to the point of long quotations from the latter; and a 34-page appendix added by Dole, quoting the Schoolcraft originals for various episodes in the poem.
November 24, 2008
I have loved the rhythm of this poem since I was a kid. I could read it over and over and over.
February 28, 2021
Ye who love the haunts of Nature,
Love the sunshine of the meadow,
Love the shadow of the forest,
Love the wind among the branches,
And the rain-shower and the snow-storm,
And the rushing of great rivers
Through their palisades of pine-trees,
And the thunder in the mountains,
Whose innumerable echoes
Flap like eagles in their eyries;--
Listen to these wild traditions,
To this Song of Hiawatha!
Longfellow is my favorite poet and this is my favorite of all his longer works (I have many more favorites among his short poems and ballads). But the Song of Hiawatha truly does bring with it "the odors of the forest, the dew and damp of meadows, the curling smoke of wigwams, the rushing of great rivers..." And I love it! 😊
Love the sunshine of the meadow,
Love the shadow of the forest,
Love the wind among the branches,
And the rain-shower and the snow-storm,
And the rushing of great rivers
Through their palisades of pine-trees,
And the thunder in the mountains,
Whose innumerable echoes
Flap like eagles in their eyries;--
Listen to these wild traditions,
To this Song of Hiawatha!
Longfellow is my favorite poet and this is my favorite of all his longer works (I have many more favorites among his short poems and ballads). But the Song of Hiawatha truly does bring with it "the odors of the forest, the dew and damp of meadows, the curling smoke of wigwams, the rushing of great rivers..." And I love it! 😊
December 29, 2021
This is a most excellent poem. I recommend it to all who can read.
July 17, 2018
A great Indian epic poem.
December 31, 2018
By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the moon, Nokomis.
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.
There the wrinkled old Nokomis
Nursed the little Hiawatha,
Rocked him in his linden cradle,
Bedded soft in moss and rushes,
Born circa 1450, Hiawatha was a Native American visionary. He is thought to be responsible for forming the Iroquois Confederacy, an alliance of five tribes that resulted in a peaceful co-existence for some period of time. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s tribute to him is a 200 page poem, and quite a feat of beauty, rhythm and imagery.
The above passage was part of a recitation I did when I was in fifth or sixth grade. I don’t believe I ever read the entire poem until now, though, so I did not really know what the story entailed or how much beauty there was in this homage to Native American culture. I suppose some might think it a cliche, the brave warrior, the mixture of nature and humanity, the gods in the winds, but I saw it much as reading the Greek myths. There is a quiet beauty to the words, the rhythmic cadence lulls like a lullaby and gives the same sense of contentment. I can imagine this as almost a memory of being rocked at your mother’s breast.
Thus it is our daughters leave us,
Those we love, and those who love us!
Just when they have learned to help us,
When we are old and lean upon them,
Comes a youth with flaunting feathers,
With his flute of reeds, a stranger
Wanders piping through the village,
Beckons to the fairest maiden,
And she follows where he leads her,
Leaving all things for the stranger!
In the end of the poem, the coming of the White Man is seen in such a positive, hopeful way, which history proves is a stretch. But then, I noticed that when the White Man arrives Hiawatha discovers it is time for him to go. Who could blame him?
By the shining Big-Sea-Water
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the moon, Nokomis.
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.
There the wrinkled old Nokomis
Nursed the little Hiawatha,
Rocked him in his linden cradle,
Bedded soft in moss and rushes,
Born circa 1450, Hiawatha was a Native American visionary. He is thought to be responsible for forming the Iroquois Confederacy, an alliance of five tribes that resulted in a peaceful co-existence for some period of time. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s tribute to him is a 200 page poem, and quite a feat of beauty, rhythm and imagery.
The above passage was part of a recitation I did when I was in fifth or sixth grade. I don’t believe I ever read the entire poem until now, though, so I did not really know what the story entailed or how much beauty there was in this homage to Native American culture. I suppose some might think it a cliche, the brave warrior, the mixture of nature and humanity, the gods in the winds, but I saw it much as reading the Greek myths. There is a quiet beauty to the words, the rhythmic cadence lulls like a lullaby and gives the same sense of contentment. I can imagine this as almost a memory of being rocked at your mother’s breast.
Thus it is our daughters leave us,
Those we love, and those who love us!
Just when they have learned to help us,
When we are old and lean upon them,
Comes a youth with flaunting feathers,
With his flute of reeds, a stranger
Wanders piping through the village,
Beckons to the fairest maiden,
And she follows where he leads her,
Leaving all things for the stranger!
In the end of the poem, the coming of the White Man is seen in such a positive, hopeful way, which history proves is a stretch. But then, I noticed that when the White Man arrives Hiawatha discovers it is time for him to go. Who could blame him?
April 25, 2010
I have very mixed feelings about this poem. The actual legends and folklore on which the poem is based are fascinating, and an important part of many Native American cultures to preserve. But they don't work very well when not performed as a part of the storytelling tradition of Native American tribes, especially when the compiler uses them to set up a defense of the actiona of white colonists who forced the religions these stories grew out of to transition instead to Christianity. Bleh. And the representations of women are wretched - they either die so that they can leave a son or a husband to seek revenge, or they are "weak," "feeble," or "weepy." In fact, the poem even erases the real life women who worked to compile the different versions of the myths that "Hiawatha" grew out of, contributing that work instead to a man! Not surprising for the time, but still problematic.
January 26, 2013
Transported for two full nights into another world. Disappointed that I was not introduced to this at a younger age but also grateful that I've been able to discover it and enjoy it so thoroughly and fresh in my maturity. A poem in trochaic tetrameter that necessitates it being read aloud to fully experience its effect. Simply mesmerizing.
February 16, 2021
I struggled with giving this either 3 or 4 stars...it was a beautiful poem, and Longfellow really does have a way with words, I just lost interest in it a few times. Sometimes it felt like it just dragged on... But overall, I did enjoy it, and may even read it again in the future. 😊
December 31, 2019
The first time I read this I was in middle school. Back then I read it quickly to be in time for the deadline and didn't think much of it - it seemed too straightforward to me.
Now, a decade later, I reread it and absolutely loved it.
Firstly, I am now a bigger lover of poetry and really appreciated both Longfellow's masterful verse and stylization, and Bunin's brilliant translation. I read the parallel text in this bilingual edition, so you could say I read it twice just now.
Secondly, I've acquired some cultural and historical context. For instance, I've just finished Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West which opened my heart and mind to the beauty of Native American myths. It really enhanced my reading experience and appreciation.
I'm glad Longfellow retold the collected legends in a way that drew the western reader in while preserving the myth's imaginative substance. I especially loved the one about Hiawatha & Mondamin.
Overall I think it's a brilliant piece of art, the subject matter is very interesting, but also I simply really cared for the characters.
P.S. Having said all that, the epilogue was disgusting. I guess without it Longfellow probably couldn't have published this work, or if he did, it wouldn't have become so popular. But still, ugh.
Now, a decade later, I reread it and absolutely loved it.
Firstly, I am now a bigger lover of poetry and really appreciated both Longfellow's masterful verse and stylization, and Bunin's brilliant translation. I read the parallel text in this bilingual edition, so you could say I read it twice just now.
Secondly, I've acquired some cultural and historical context. For instance, I've just finished Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West which opened my heart and mind to the beauty of Native American myths. It really enhanced my reading experience and appreciation.
I'm glad Longfellow retold the collected legends in a way that drew the western reader in while preserving the myth's imaginative substance. I especially loved the one about Hiawatha & Mondamin.
Overall I think it's a brilliant piece of art, the subject matter is very interesting, but also I simply really cared for the characters.
P.S. Having said all that, the epilogue was disgusting. I guess without it Longfellow probably couldn't have published this work, or if he did, it wouldn't have become so popular. But still, ugh.
October 30, 2016
This poem stays with me since I first read portions of it to my son when he was a child. He loved hearing the names of various animals. We have a street named Wah-wah-tay-see Way here in my fair city (dragonfly). I read aloud one of my favorite sections of Hiawatha for a Toastmasters advanced project and people who'd never experienced it were fascinated. Poetry! It was an eye-opener for some. Since it's a book I own, I can go to it any time I like and enjoy it. And I do.
March 7, 2022
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!
2nd reading - my 10 year old son and I listened to Peter Yearsley’s recording on LibriVox and we both loved it. He does an excellent job reading. Zane was sad when it was over and he even made an original composition for the piano inspired by part of the story.
2nd reading - my 10 year old son and I listened to Peter Yearsley’s recording on LibriVox and we both loved it. He does an excellent job reading. Zane was sad when it was over and he even made an original composition for the piano inspired by part of the story.
January 25, 2015
25 JAN 2015 -- recommended by Bettie. Read this many, many years ago as a young girl in school. Together with If by Kipling, they were favorites. Thank you, Bettie, for the walk back in time.
You may read the epic poem online here --
http://www.archive.org/stream/songhia...
Listen here (while available) -- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0501k2f
You may read the epic poem online here --
http://www.archive.org/stream/songhia...
Listen here (while available) -- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0501k2f
November 20, 2018
The Song of Hiawatha reminded me of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin in the way Longfellow beautifully crafted his verses. A lyrical story of a Native American hero who is quite magical. Three stars because I was ready for the adventure to end two-thirds of the way through.
December 31, 2024
American classic, and possibly the best epic poem composed in English.
This was highly popular with my kids -- I've read it to different configurations of them four times over the years, far more if you count the bedtime staple of "Hiawatha's Childhood". The full poem did require occasional breaks into prose for explanations of events, and.. well, I have had children with very strong interests, and it is possible more passing references to pteranodons, plesiosaurs, and kitty cats have showed up in THUMP thump THUMP thump trochaic tetrameter than were in the original text.
Most recent time through, very sensitive DD2 (7) really liked the beginning through the middle, but the ending became too dark for her tastes. This was not an issue I'd had with her when she was younger, nor something I'd faced with her siblings.
This was highly popular with my kids -- I've read it to different configurations of them four times over the years, far more if you count the bedtime staple of "Hiawatha's Childhood". The full poem did require occasional breaks into prose for explanations of events, and.. well, I have had children with very strong interests, and it is possible more passing references to pteranodons, plesiosaurs, and kitty cats have showed up in THUMP thump THUMP thump trochaic tetrameter than were in the original text.
Most recent time through, very sensitive DD2 (7) really liked the beginning through the middle, but the ending became too dark for her tastes. This was not an issue I'd had with her when she was younger, nor something I'd faced with her siblings.
November 1, 2019
I read this to my young kids at bed time. Not enough farts and boogers to earn their endorsement; despite best efforts to not enjoy it, they were almost interested from time to time. I quite like the rhythm and sound of Hiawatha -- if Captain Underpants were written in the same style, perhaps my kids and I would have a happy compromise.
My copy of the book is an old reader a neighbor gave to my mother when she was a kid. I remember, she read at least the famous passage to me when I was a kid and the sound of it has since floated about my head.
My copy of the book is an old reader a neighbor gave to my mother when she was a kid. I remember, she read at least the famous passage to me when I was a kid and the sound of it has since floated about my head.
February 4, 2014
3½ stars. For some reason, I didn't expect this poem to be as accurately grounded in Native American folklore/mythology and language as it was. I like Longfellow's style of poetry, which has a strong meter and rhythm. This epic poem contains Algonquin folklore which is in some places surprisingly similar to Bible stories (for example, Hiawatha's strong friend Kwa'sind whose only weak spot is in the crown of his head can't help but remind one of Sampson). Other sections are more historical, as in the section describing the introduction of writing via pictograms.
September 20, 2016
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.
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.
January 24, 2015
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.
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.
May 22, 2016
This is without a doubt one of the masterpieces of English poetry, which of course is why its required reading in schools to this day.
October 18, 2018
In a series of black-and-white photos taken in the 1920s a group of girls at a New England summer camp act out scenes from The Song of Hiawatha. Old Nokomis is wrapped in a blanket and seated by the fire. Five noble braves in feather headdresses pose in a row with arms crossed. Hiawatha leads Minnehaha by the hand away from her father’s wigwam in the land of the Dacotahs.
Americans of European ancestry have tried for centuries to claim a share of the heritage of those their forebears conquered and displaced. The impulse that inspired Longfellow's Native American verse epic is perhaps the same that inspires Anglo-American families of colonial vintage to believe in a fabled Cherokee ancestor. Charitably, it arises from a desire to belong here, a longing which can still trouble us four hundred years after our first Puritan grandfathers stepped ashore at Plymouth.
It’s easy to mock this kind of thing, especially when (as recently happened) such claims are publicly hawked for dubious reasons and founded more on a wish-that-it-were-so than on any very compelling evidence. Longfellow’s poem had its hecklers too. It lends itself easily to satire with its sing-song rhythm and somber repetitions. Lewis Carroll memorably joined in the hilarity with “Hiawatha’s Photographing,” which begins:
From his shoulder Hiawatha
Took the camera of rosewood,
Made of sliding, folding rosewood;
Neatly put it all together.
In its case it lay compactly,
Folded into nearly nothing;
But he opened out the hinges
Till it looked all squares and oblongs,
Like a complicated figure
From the second book of Euclid.
It often happens, however, that a conquering people find their imagination invaded by those they have vanquished. The Ptolemaic Greeks adopted the ways of the Egyptians. The Romans imported Greek art and literature wholesale into their spacious culture. The Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain made their own the Arthurian lore of the Celts. The borrowing of culture is always a big part of the making of culture.
Clearly, The Song of Hiawatha is no authentic Native American artifact, though Longfellow borrowed stories and names from the Ojibways of Lake Superior. Neither is it a product of European culture, though he modeled it on epics like the Finnish Kalevala. Instead, the poem lives in a middle place where, in Longfellow’s day, a distinctively American culture was still taking shape. Beyond poetry, its appeal lies in its vigorous synthesis and its acknowledgement of those catholic aspects of human experience and aspiration that lie deeper than culture.
Some today insist that the secret aim in such acts of cultural borrowing can only be to celebrate the degradation of a conquered people, but this is ridiculous. Those twelve-year-old girls in their feather headdresses at a summer camp in the 1920s were certainly celebrating something, but it was not the humiliation of the Indians.
Americans of European ancestry have tried for centuries to claim a share of the heritage of those their forebears conquered and displaced. The impulse that inspired Longfellow's Native American verse epic is perhaps the same that inspires Anglo-American families of colonial vintage to believe in a fabled Cherokee ancestor. Charitably, it arises from a desire to belong here, a longing which can still trouble us four hundred years after our first Puritan grandfathers stepped ashore at Plymouth.
It’s easy to mock this kind of thing, especially when (as recently happened) such claims are publicly hawked for dubious reasons and founded more on a wish-that-it-were-so than on any very compelling evidence. Longfellow’s poem had its hecklers too. It lends itself easily to satire with its sing-song rhythm and somber repetitions. Lewis Carroll memorably joined in the hilarity with “Hiawatha’s Photographing,” which begins:
From his shoulder Hiawatha
Took the camera of rosewood,
Made of sliding, folding rosewood;
Neatly put it all together.
In its case it lay compactly,
Folded into nearly nothing;
But he opened out the hinges
Till it looked all squares and oblongs,
Like a complicated figure
From the second book of Euclid.
It often happens, however, that a conquering people find their imagination invaded by those they have vanquished. The Ptolemaic Greeks adopted the ways of the Egyptians. The Romans imported Greek art and literature wholesale into their spacious culture. The Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain made their own the Arthurian lore of the Celts. The borrowing of culture is always a big part of the making of culture.
Clearly, The Song of Hiawatha is no authentic Native American artifact, though Longfellow borrowed stories and names from the Ojibways of Lake Superior. Neither is it a product of European culture, though he modeled it on epics like the Finnish Kalevala. Instead, the poem lives in a middle place where, in Longfellow’s day, a distinctively American culture was still taking shape. Beyond poetry, its appeal lies in its vigorous synthesis and its acknowledgement of those catholic aspects of human experience and aspiration that lie deeper than culture.
Some today insist that the secret aim in such acts of cultural borrowing can only be to celebrate the degradation of a conquered people, but this is ridiculous. Those twelve-year-old girls in their feather headdresses at a summer camp in the 1920s were certainly celebrating something, but it was not the humiliation of the Indians.
June 16, 2024
I feel like this is required reading for Minnesotans? Just now getting to it.
I liked this epic poem overall, though the whole thing--a white poet (Longfellow) writing an American Indian epic poem feels off to me? But in its time, I suppose this introduced native culture to white folks in a sympathetic way, so that's something. The introduction of The White Man near the end was told entirely positively, so, dishonestly.
Where I live has so many places named after characters in these stories (Longfellow didn't invent them, obviously, he relied on Henry Schoolcraft's work and other Indian stories): Hiawatha, Minnehaha, Nokomis, Wabun, Keewaydin; love the references to Gitche Gumee (Lake Superior).
Hiawatha was a real person, but he was actually "a precolonial Native American leader and cofounder of the Iroquois Confederacy. He was a leader of the Onondaga people, the Mohawk people, or both" (Wikipedia), who lived in New York/Pennsylvania. It's ironic that even though I live on what was Dakota land, one of the main streets I drive down, and one of the closest lakes to my house is named after a figure who wasn't even from here.
All because of this poem.
Weird. But also, totally expected, I guess.
I liked this epic poem overall, though the whole thing--a white poet (Longfellow) writing an American Indian epic poem feels off to me? But in its time, I suppose this introduced native culture to white folks in a sympathetic way, so that's something. The introduction of The White Man near the end was told entirely positively, so, dishonestly.
Where I live has so many places named after characters in these stories (Longfellow didn't invent them, obviously, he relied on Henry Schoolcraft's work and other Indian stories): Hiawatha, Minnehaha, Nokomis, Wabun, Keewaydin; love the references to Gitche Gumee (Lake Superior).
Hiawatha was a real person, but he was actually "a precolonial Native American leader and cofounder of the Iroquois Confederacy. He was a leader of the Onondaga people, the Mohawk people, or both" (Wikipedia), who lived in New York/Pennsylvania. It's ironic that even though I live on what was Dakota land, one of the main streets I drive down, and one of the closest lakes to my house is named after a figure who wasn't even from here.
All because of this poem.
Weird. But also, totally expected, I guess.
October 28, 2019
„Отвъд хребета”, „Седем братя и една сестра“ и „Бизоновата жена“ на Пол Гобъл са сред най-любимите ми книги от изд. „Изток-Запад”. Макар и кратки, илюстрованите легенди на северноамериканските индианци притежават специфично самобитно очарование, което завладява с лекота. „Песен за Хаяуата” е своеобразно продължение на този цикъл, но този път вместо отделни приказки ще се насладим на епично произведение, чрез което ще се потопим дълбоко в културата и митологията на коренното американско население. Поемата на Хенри Уодзуърт Лонгфелоу е преведена и преразказана в проза от най-подходящия човек за тази задача, а именно - Любомир Кюмюрджиев. Прочетете ревюто на "Книжни Криле": https://knijnikrile.wordpress.com/201...
June 30, 2022
Not sure I actually ever read this entire story ... I've read children's versions, and portions of the actual poem, but I believe this was my first reading of the entire thing, in poetry form. I enjoyed the poetry ... descriptions of nature to explain literally everything in life. I enjoyed the word pictures of all the things Hiawatha was doing. I enjoyed the imagery, the rhythm of the verse, and the entire story. Makes it extra special that I was just recently in Portland, Maine, where I saw the home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
November 28, 2023
A highly recommend this American classic on audio!
November 3, 2025
I can say "Gitche Gumee" with children all day long and never get tired of it. Reading the whole poem is not quite as much fun.
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