The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 1.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

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[106]

VIII. song of Indian women.

The Dark eye has left us,
     The Spring-bird has flown;
On the pathway of spirits
     She wanders alone.
The song of the wood-dove has died on our shore:
     Mat wonck kunna-monee!¹ We hear it no more!

O dark water Spirit!
     We cast on thy wave
These furs which may never
     Hang over her grave;
Bear down to the lost one the robes that she wore:
     Mat wonck kunna-monee! e see her no more!

Of the strange land she walks in
     No Powah has told:
It may burn with the sunshine,
     Or freeze with the cold.
Let us give to our lost one the robes that she wore:
     Mat wonck kunna-monee! We see her no more!

The path she is treading
     Shall soon be our own;
Each gliding in shadow
     Unseen and alone!
In vain shall we call on the souls gone before:
     Mat wonck kunna-monee! They hear us no more!

O mighty Sowanna!²
     Thy gateways unfold,
From thy wigwam of sunset
     Lift curtains of gold!