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Gordon, Hanford Lennox, 1836-1920

"The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems"

"
"Let Winona depart with the chief,--
she will kindle the fire in his _teepee_;
For long are the days of her grief,
if she stay in the _tee_ of Ta-te-psin,"
She replied, and her cheeks were aflame
with the bloom of the wild prairie lilies.
"_Tanke_[AK], is the White Chief to blame?"
said DuLuth to the blushing Winona.
"The White Chief is blameless," she said,
"but the heart of Winona will follow
Wherever thy footsteps may lead,
O blue-eyed, brave Chief of the white men.
For her mother sleeps long in the mound,
and a step-mother rules in the _teepee_,
And her father, once strong and renowned,
is bent with the weight of his winters.
No longer he handles the spear,--
no longer his swift, humming arrows
Overtake the fleet feet of the deer,
or the bear of the woods, or the bison;
But he bends as he walks, and the wind
shakes his white hair and hinders his footsteps;
And soon will he leave me behind,
without brother or sister or kindred.
The doe scents the wolf in the wind,
and a wolf walks the path of Winona.


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