American Indian love lyrics, and other verse, from the songs of the North American Indians
General
American Indian love lyrics, and other verse, from the songs of the North American Indians
Indians of North America -- Poetry
Balanced forms of thought, that is, forms in parallel structure, do not
appear commonly. Perhaps it is more exact to recall that pure iteration
and alternation of thought approximate the effects which parallelism
may contribute, especially when the repetition is sung in a different
pitch from that of the key thought. The infrequent occurrence of sharp
contrasts of imagery, or antitheses of thought, may explain the rare
use of parallelism. The ancient lament of the Onondagas, preserved in
_The Iroquois Book of Rites_, remains one of the most beautifully wrought
poems of this type brought down to our time.
The interlacing design of thought is one of the most graceful as well
as one of the most difficult. This pattern shows skill and delicacy in
poetic construction, as the interlacing repetitions frequently carry
from one stanza to another, as from first to third and second to fourth,
found in _The Morning Star and the New Born Dawn_, from _The Hako_.
This device carries the thought forward. It is, therefore, definitely
related in purpose to the form which is universally the vehicle of the
ballad—incremental repetition. The Indian poet uses this form both for
narrative and for descriptive purposes. The Navaho _Song of the Horse_
shows a studied picture, framing each detail with repetitions; while the
same incremental use of repetition carries forward the narrative in the
_Navaho Rain Chant_.
There is a further structural use of these forms. If we can point to a
single prototype of the lyric stanza, we must find it in the unit of
thought-rhythm. As it assumed different aspects, enlarging itself with
repetitions, there appeared the first conscious step, the stanzaic germ
with varying possibilities of structure. This æsthetic origin of the
stanza appeared before the intellectual recognition of unity of thought.
In this song recorded by Miss Fletcher, there is a stanzaic germ of
typically primitive quality. It is lengthened, possibly, for singing.
The composer shaped three words into the form of a stanza by the use of
repetitions and the addition of vocables.
_Noⁿ-we shka-dse, noⁿ-we shka-dse_;
Ha-ha! e he tha, Ha-ha! we
Ha-ha! e he tha.
Ha-ha! e he tha tha. Ho-ga!
_Noⁿ-we shka-dse, noⁿ-we shka-dse_;
Ha-ha! e he tha.
In countless song-poems, however, the compactness of thought and swift
unity of impression have evolved stanzas with complex and studied
patterns of thought-rhythm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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