by Lydia Sigourney<\/p>\n
“How can the Red men be forgotten, while so many of our states and territories, bays, lakes and rivers, are indelibly stamped by the names of their giving?”<\/p>\n
YE say they all have pass’d away,
\nThat noble race and brave,
\nThat their light canoes have vanish’d
\nFrom off the crested wave
\nThat mid the forests where they roam’d
\nThere rings no hunter’s shout;
\nBut their name is on your waters,
\nYe may not wash it out.<\/p>\n
‘Tis where Ontario’s billow
\nLike Ocean’s surge is curl’d;
\nWhere strong Niagara’s thunders wake
\nThe echo of the world;
\nWhere red Missouri bringeth
\nRich tributes from the west,
\nAnd Rappahannock sweetly sleeps
\nOn green Virginia’s breast.<\/p>\n
Ye say, their cone-like cabins,
\nThat cluster’d o’er the vale,
\nHave fled away like wither’d leaves
\nBefore the autumn gale:
\nBut their memory liveth on your hills,
\nTheir baptism on your shore;
\nYour everlasting rivers speak
\nTheir dialect of yore.<\/p>\n
Old Massachusetts wears it
\nWithin her lordly crown,
\nAnd broad Ohio bears it
\nMid all her young renown;
\nConnecticut hath wreathed it
\nWhere her quiet foliage waves,
\nAnd bold Kentucky breathed it hoarse
\nThrough all her ancient caves.<\/p>\n
Wachuset hides its lingering voice
\nWithin his rocky heart,
\nAnd Alleghany graves its tone
\nThroughout his lofty chart;
\nMonadnock on his forehead hoar
\nDoth seal the sacred trust;
\nYour mountains build their monument,
\nThough ye destroy their dust.<\/p>\n
Ye call these red-browned brethren
\nThe insects of an hour,
\nCrushed like the noteless worm amid
\nThe regions of their power;
\nYe drive them from their father\u2019s lands,
\nYe break of faith the seal,
\nBut can ye from the court of Heaven
\nExclude their last appeal?<\/p>\n
Ye see their unresisting tribes,
\nWith toilsome step and slow,
\nOn through the trackless desert pass
\nA caravan of woe;
\nThink ye the Eternal\u2019s ear is deaf?
\nHis sleepless vision dim?
\nThink ye the\u00a0soul\u2019s blood\u00a0may not cry
\nFrom that far land to him?<\/p>\n
Public Domain \r\n\r\nSource: University of Michigan Library, Digital Collections<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indian Names by Lydia Sigourney “How can the Red men be forgotten, while so many of our states and territories, bays, lakes and rivers, are indelibly stamped by the names of their giving?” YE say they all have pass’d away, That noble race and brave, That their light canoes have vanish’d From off the crested … Continue reading Indian Names<\/span>