Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Indian Songs

Alice Corbin

THE NOISE of passing feet

On the prairie—

Is it men or gods

Who come out of the silence?

Strike ye our land

With curved horns!

Now with cries

Bending our bodies,

Breathe fire upon us;

Now with feet

Trampling the earth,

Let your hoofs

Thunder over us!

Strike ye our land

With curved horns!

In the place where the fight was

Across the river,

In the place where the fight was

Across the river:

A heavy load for a woman

To lift in her blanket,

A heavy load for a woman

To carry on her shoulder.

In the place where the fight was

Across the river,

In the place where the fight was

Across the river:

The women go wailing

To gather the wounded,

The women go wailing

To pick up the dead.

The wind is carrying me round the sky;

The wind is carrying me round the sky.

My body is here in the valley—

The wind is carrying me round the sky.

When I go I will give you surely

What you will wear if you go with me;

A blanket of red and a bright girdle,

Two new moccasins and a silver necklace.

When I go I will give you surely

What you will wear if you go with me!

The odor of death

In the front of my body,

The odor of death

Before me—

Is there any one

Who would weep for me?

My wife

Would weep for me.

Now I go, do not weep, woman—

Woman, do not weep;

Though I go from you to die,

We shall both lie down

At the foot of the hill, and sleep.

Now I go, do not weep, woman—

Woman, do not weep;

Earth is our mother and our tent the sky.

Though I go from you to die,

We shall both lie down

At the foot of the hill, and sleep.