Quotes from book
The Song of Hiawatha

The Song of Hiawatha
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem in trochaic tetrameter by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which features Native American characters. The epic relates the fictional adventures of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha and the tragedy of his love for Minnehaha, a Dakota woman. Events in the story are set in the Pictured Rocks area on the south shore of Lake Superior. Longfellow's poem is based on oral traditions surrounding the figure of Manabozho, but it also contains his own innovations.

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“All your strength is in your union,
All your danger is in discord;
Therefore be at peace henceforward,
And as brothers live together.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Song of Hiawatha

Pt. I, The Peace-Pipe, st. 13.
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“As unto the bow the cord is,
So unto the man is woman;
Though she bends him, she obeys him,
Though she draws him, yet she follows,
Useless each without the other!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Song of Hiawatha

Pt. X, Hiawatha's Wooing, st. 1.
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)

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“Thus departed Hiawatha,
Hiawatha the Beloved,
In the glory of the sunset,
In the purple mists of evening,
To the regions of the home-wind,
Of the Northwest-Wind, Keewaydin,
To the Islands of the Blessed,
To the Kingdom of Ponemah,
To the Land of the Hereafter!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Song of Hiawatha

Pt. XXII, Hiawatha's Departure, st. 29.
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“From the water-fall he named her,
Minnehaha, Laughing Water.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Song of Hiawatha

Pt. IV, Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis, st. 33.
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)

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“By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Song of Hiawatha

Pt. III, Hiawatha’s Childhood, st. 8.
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)

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“Oh the long and dreary Winter!
Oh the cold and cruel Winter!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Song of Hiawatha

Pt. XX.
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)

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“Big words do not smite like war-clubs,
Boastful breath is not a bow-string,
Taunts are not so sharp as arrows,
Deeds are better things than words are,
Actions mightier than boastings.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Song of Hiawatha

Pt. IX.
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“By the shore of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning,
Hiawatha stood and waited.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Song of Hiawatha

Pt. XXII, Hiawatha's Departure, st. 1.
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)

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