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A poem by John Greenleaf Whittier |
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Funeral Tree Of The Sokokis |
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Title: Funeral Tree Of The Sokokis Author: John Greenleaf Whittier [More Titles by Whittier] Polan, chief of the Sokokis Indians of the country between Agamenticus and Casco Bay, was killed at Windham on Sebago Lake in the spring of 1756. After the whites had retired, the surviving Indians "swayed" or bent down a young tree until its roots were upturned, placed the body of their chief beneath it, then released the tree, which, in springing back to its old position, covered the grave. The Sokokis were early converts to the Catholic faith. Most of them, prior to the year 1756, had removed to the French settlements on the St. Francois. AROUND Sebago's lonely lake The solemn pines along its shore, The sun looks o'er, with hazy eye, Dazzling and white! save where the bleak, Yet green are Saco's banks below, The earth hath felt the breath of spring, Fresh grasses fringe the meadow-brooks, And odors from the springing grass, Her tokens of renewing care But in their hour of bitterness, The turf's red stain is yet undried, And silent now the hunters stand, Fire and the axe have swept it bare, With grave, cold looks, all sternly mute, They heave the stubborn trunk aside, And there the fallen chief is laid, The silver cross he loved is pressed 'T is done: the roots are backward sent, When of that sleeper's broken race Oh, long may sunset's light be shed There shall his fitting requiem be, To their wild wail the waves which break And who shall deem the spot unblest, Deem ye that mother loveth less As sweet o'er them her wild-flowers blow, What though the places of their rest What though the bigot's ban be there, Yet Heaven hath angels watching round There ceases man's frail judgment; all O peeled and hunted and reviled, And Nature's God, to whom alone Who from its many cumberings Not with our partial eye shall scan, [The end] GO TO TOP OF SCREEN |