Prairie Poetry

I. PETER LA FARGE: Vision of a Past Warrior*

I have within me such a dream of pain
That all my silver horseman hopes rust still,
Beyond quicksilver mountains,
On the plain,
The buffalo are gone,
None left to kill,

I see the plains grow blackened with that dawn,
No robes for winter warmth
No meat to eat,
The ghost white buffalos' medicine gone,
No hope for Indians then,
I see defeat.

Then there will be changes to another way,
We will fight battles that are legends long.
But of all our glory
None will stay,
Who will remember
that I sang this song?


   * (1969). In The Writing on the Wall: 108 American Poems of Protest. Ed. Walter Lowenfels. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company: 122. Rpt. from La Farge; executor of estate, Warden M. Kane.

ACTIVITIES:

  1. The narrator in La Farge's poem talks about several uses of the buffalo for the Indians. What uses does the narrator mention? Go through the "Prairie Ecosystem" links, and find out more about these uses. List at least one site giving information about these uses. Can you find any other reason the buffalo were important to the prairie that La Farge does not mention?
  2. Read William Cullen Bryant's poem, "An Indian at the Burial Place of His Fathers," which was written right after 1800. What predictions does the Indian narrator in Bryant's poem make? What predictions does the narrator in La Farge's poem make? How are these predictions alike? How are they different?
  3. What is meant by "changes to another way" in the third stanza? What is meant by "battles that are legends long?" Why does La Farge use the word "legends" when describing the length of the battles?
  4. Find out about one of the Indian Tribes from the Great Plains-- perhaps the Lakota. Pick an Indian--a chief, an elder, a warrior, a woman, or a man. The Indian can be a real Indian you read about, or imaginary. Jot down a few things that the Indian might have said or thought, and then write a poem in which the Indian speaks.
  5. Why do you think that LaFarge describes the plains as growing "blackened?" When did the Plains grow blackened in the poem? What event spurred it? Were the Plains ever blackened in reality?
  6. Go to the "Prairie Ecosystems" page, and click on the photographs of Dustbowl refugees by Dorothea Lange. After studying a few of Lange's photographs, write a poem, possibly entitled, "Visions of a Past Wheat Farmer," "Visions of a Past Pioneer," or "Visions of a Past Plains Settler." The poem should look at the refugee's view of the Plains and its future, along with the future of the Plains farmer.
  7. Navajo poet Hershman John (1996) wrote a poem called "The Dark World." At the end of this poem, Hershman John writes:
    Coyote lives here somewhere
    Out in the night, his tracks
    Lead away from many quarrels

    After the beings emerged from the First World
    Coyote threw a rock into a deep lake
    The beings watched it sink with a splash
    and each ripple shook the beings' anger more and more

    The people were mad because of Coyote's words:

     "If the rock floats, people will live forever"
     "If the rock sinks, people will die . . ."
    The Coyote, one of the animals who lived on the Great Plains, was a trickster in Indian lore. That means he did a lot of daring things and played many tricks. How might Hershman John's story about Coyote relate to the conflicts of the Great Plains?
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II. ANONYMOUS: Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie**

"O bury me not on the lone prairie!"
These words came low and mournfully
From the pallid lips of a youth who lay
On his dying bed at the close of day.

"O bury me not on the lone prairie,
Where the wild coyotes will howl o'er me,
Where the buzzards beat and the wind goes free;
O bury me not on the lone prairie!

"O bury me not on the lone prairie,
In a narrow grave six foot by three,
Where the buffalo paws o'er a prairie sea;
O bury me not on the lone prairie!

"O bury me not on the lone prairie,
Where the wild coyotes will howl o'er me,
Where the rattlesnakes hiss and the crow flies free;
O bury me not on the lone prairie!

"O bury me not," and his voice faltered there,
But we took no heed of his dying prayer;
In a narrow grave just six by three,
We buried him there on the lone prairie.


   ** (1969). In The Writing on the Wall: 108 American Poems of Protest. Ed. Lowenfels: 162.

ACTIVITIES: HEARING RHYTHM:

  1. Try to imagine how this poem would sound set to music. You might want to create a drum beat to go with it. Or perhaps, you'd want to act out the animal sounds that are mentioned, and set these to a rhythm.
  2. Count the syllables in each line. Which syllables sound strong and loud--and are emphasized, stressed? How many do you count in a line?
  3. What about the last syllable in "prairie?" Should it be stressed or not when you read the poem? When you sing it? (Decide how you would read and sing this poem. Do not worry about finding a right or a wrong way to read or sing it!)
  4. Go to the "Frontier Life" page and then click on the link to Edgar Allen Poe's "Eldorado." When was the poem first published? What does "eldorado" mean? In light of what you know about those times, what do you think Poe was writing about? How would you interpret the story told in the poem, in light of what you know?

(This page last updated 2011; links still need updating; background on this page adapted from efreebackground.com
http://www.efreebackgrounds.com/hu/wallpapers/wallpaper/flowers-trees-and-fruit-backgrounds/4709-prairie-flowers-near-east-glacier-park-montana