LARANOWA of the Mohawks, lovely Iroquois, Elemental, winsome, gentle, shy and daring child! Would I call thee back from freedom to our warping law? Would I see thy maddening beauty with our ways defiled? Dashing through the splashing dew with a joyous mind, Thou dost race the morning matins down the crooning air. Like a laggard to thy running leaps the carolling wind; Like a shaft of midnight is thy hair. Would I stop thy flaming foot, burning strength and grace? Would I turn thy lyric going to this prose of mine? Dusky is the twilight beauty of thy swarthy race -- Like the deeper, richer glowing of a darker wine. Men would teach thee, who hast wisdom at the fountain source; Painted women shrug their shoulders when thou comest near. Thou art free and strong and tameless -- they a spent-out force. Thou hast still thy pagan blushes when the gods appear. Laranowa, in thy motion I can count the cost Of this carnivalian crowding of our prisoned feet. Thou dost skim along a pathway, where the rocks are mossed, Lightly going as a zephyr winnowing o'er the wheat. Elemental, winsome, gentle, shy and daring child, Fearless of the silent darkness and her starry awe, Heiress of the woodland's largess, sweetheart of the wild -- Laranowa of the Mohawks, lovely Iroquois! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOVE BEING ALL ONE by ROBERT FROST IN LOVE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TIRED by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TO HORACE BUMSTEAD by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON TUNK (A LECTURE ON MODERN EDUCATION) by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON VASHTI by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON OWL AGAINST ROBIN by SIDNEY LANIER EPITAPH IN A CHURCH-YARD IN CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA by AMY LOWELL |