The Song of Hiawatha
1855
Longfellow's 1855 epic transformed Native American oral traditions into something that would shape America's literary imagination for generations. Written in the poem's signature trochaic tetrameter, a hypnotic four-beat rhythm that lingers in the mind like a heartbeat, The Song of Hiawatha follows its eponymous hero from childhood under the watchful eye of his grandmother Nokomis through his coming-of-age, his supernatural encounters with the spirits of forest and water, and his tragic love for Minnehaha, a Dakota maiden. Set along the shores of Lake Superior's Gitchee Gumee, the poem weaves together legend, romance, and elegy into a pastoral vision of Native American life before contact. Longfellow drew from Ojibwe, Dakota, and other tribal traditions, synthesizing them into a work that is part genuine homage and part poetic invention. Whatever its anthropological limitations, the poem's genuine reverence for the natural world and its aching portrayal of love lost to death have given it an enduring power. It remains a touchstone of American literature, the poem millions have read and remembered for its strange, beautiful music.
