I, the song : classical poetry of native North America / [edited by] A.L. Soens.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Soens, A. L. (Adolph L.), 1931-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indian poetry--North America--Translations into English.

Indian poetry.

North America.

Physical Description:

xxx, 302 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Salt Lake City : University of Utah Press, [1999]

Summary:

Classical North American Indian poetry brings us flashes of timeless vision and absolute perception: a gull's wing red over the dawn; snow-capped peaks in the moonlight; a death song. Flowing beneath them is a powerful current: the urge to achieve a selfless attention to the universe and a determination to see and delight in that universe on its own terms.

I, the Song introduces the rich and complex classical North American poetry that grew out of Indian life before the European invasion. No generalization can hold true for all the classical poems of North American Indians. They spring from thirty thousand years of experience, five hundred languages and dialects, and ten linguistic groups. But the poems are unified by similar experiences and a shared continent.

Built on early transcriptions of Native American songs and arranged by subject, these poems are also accompanied by background information that enables readers to appreciate more fully their imagery, their cultural basis, and the moment that produced them. They enable us to look at our continent through the eyes of poets, hunters, lovers, farmers, holy people, and children. These are poems of vividness, clarity, and intense emotional power, as fresh today as when they were first spoken, when singer and song joined an immanent holiness saturating the visible universe.

Contents:

I In a Sacred Manner 3

II Thunder 13

III Creation and Emergence 24

IV Initiation 37

V Visions 50

VI The Great Ceremonies 70

VII Medicine 98

VIII Love 122

IX Hunting 136

X War 168

XI Death 193

XII Rain 213

XIII Planting and Harvesting 231

XIV Dawn 247

Glossary of Tribal Names and Territories 277.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-298).

ISBN:

0874805902

0874806097

OCLC:

40912652