Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, YONNONIDO, by WALT WHITMAN


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YONNONIDO, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: A song, a poem of itself - the word itself a dirge
Last Line: Then blank and gone and still, and utterly lost.
Subject(s): Native Americans; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


A song, a poem of itself -- the word itself a dirge,
Amid the wilds, the rocks, the storm and wintry night,
To me such misty, strange tableaux the syllables calling up;
Yonnondio -- I see, far in the west or north, a limitless
ravine, with plains and mountains dark,
I see swarms of stalwart chieftains, medicine-men, and warriors,
As flitting by like clouds of ghosts, they pass and are
gone in the twilight,
(Race of the woods, the landscapes free, and the falls!
No picture, poem, statement, passing them to the future:)
Yonnondio! Yonnondio! -- unlimn'd they disappear;
To-day gives place, and fades -- the cities, farms, factories fade;
A muffled sonorous sound, a wailing word is borne through
the air for a moment,
Then blank and gone and still, and utterly lost.





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