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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PARAGRAPHS: 9, by HAYDEN CARRUTH Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: It was the custom of my tribe to be silent Last Line: Indivisible, unvoiced Subject(s): Native Americans; Snow; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America | |||
It was the custom of my tribe to be silent, to think the song inwardly, tune and word so beautiful they could be only held, not sung; held and heard in quietness while walking the end of the field where birches make a grove, or standing by the rail in back of the library in some northern city, or in the long dream of a tower of gothic stoniness; and always we were alone. Yet sometimes two heard it, two separately together. It could come nearby in the shadow of a pine bough on the snow, or high in the orchestral lights, or maybe (this was our miracle) it would have no intermediary -- a suddenness, indivisible, unvoiced. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE OLD INDIAN by ARTHUR STANLEY BOURINOT SCHOLARLY PROCEDURE by JOSEPHINE MILES ONE LAST DRAW OF THE PIPE by PAUL MULDOON THE INDIANS ON ALCATRAZ by PAUL MULDOON THEY ACCUSE ME OF NOT TALKING by HAYDEN CARRUTH AMERICAN INDIAN ART: FORM AND TRADITION by DIANE DI PRIMA ELEGY TO THE SIOUX by NORMAN DUBIE I'VE NEVER SEEN SUCH A REAL HARD TIME BEFORE' by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE WORLD AS WILL AND REPRESENTATION' by HAYDEN CARRUTH A POST-IMPRESSIONIST SUSURRATION FOR THE FIRST OF NOVEMBER by HAYDEN CARRUTH |
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