The Longfellow Chorus
Portland, MaineFebruary 1, 2014 |
|
Alas!
The sky is overcast with dark and blustering
clouds! The rivers run
with blood, but never, never
will we suffer the grass to grow upon our
war
path! And now I do remember, that the Initiate
prophet in my earlier
years told from his dreams,
that all our race should fall like withered
leaves
when Autumn strips the forest! Lo! I hear
sighing and sobbing!
‘tis the death song of a
mighty nation, -- the last requiem over the
grave of the fallen.
—from "Dialogue Between an English Emigrant
and a North American Savage," Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow. 1823.
At 7 PM, February 27, at the Maine Historical Society
in Portland, I will be joined by Betsy Sholl, former
Poet Laureate of Maine, and John Bear Mitchell,
co-director of the Wabanaki Center and lecturer in
Wabanaki Studies at the University of Maine in Orono,
for a special lecture and reception celebrating the
207th birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
This fascinating program will recreate a little-known
student text by Longfellow, English Dialogue Between
an English Emigrant and a North American Savage
(1823), which is a transcript of a debate that 17-year-
old Longfellow took part in with a fellow student,
James W. Bradbury, for the Bowdoin College Junior
Exhibition, December 10, 1823. In this debate,
Bradbury presented the views of a seventeenth-century
English Emigrant in war-torn colonial New England;
Longfellow took on the opposing role of a Native warrior.
This was the first time Longfellow experimented with
ideas and themes that would eventually become The
Song of Hiawatha (1854). As a young man growing
up in Portland, and spending time in rural Hiram,
Maine, with its rich native tribal history associated with
ancient villages along the Saco River, Longfellow had
long been captivated by the history of Maine's Wabanaki
"English Emigrant" -- as well as recite several
additional poems; John Bear Mitchell will reenact
the part of "North American Savage," and share
thoughts and perspectives from the point of view of
a contemporary Penobscot Nation tribal member.
A Q&A session will follow this engrossing and
thoughtful presentation, as well as a reception with
birthday cake.
Will Maine Historical Society find a way to fit 207
candles on that cake?
See you there. Charles Kaufmann, Artistic Director The Longfellow Chorus PO Box 5133 Portland, Maine 04101 |
Friday, January 31, 2014
Charles Kaufmann of Longfellow Chorus: Longfellow Student Work Sheds Light on Hiawatha at Maine Historical Society Lecture, February 27, 7PM
[Rev. John Heckenwelder (1743-1823), author of "Account
of the History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations who once
inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States," (1818), a book from
which young Henry Wadsworth Longfellow borrowed liberally in "English Dialogue Between an English Emigrant and a North American Savage," (1823).]
at 10:15 PM
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