Wearing the Morning Star: Native American Song-Poems - Hardcover

9780679448273: Wearing the Morning Star: Native American Song-Poems

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679448276 ISBN 13: 9780679448273

Publisher: Random House, 1996

Here is a luminous collection of Native American songs and verse selected and updated by the editor of Coming to Light, the highly praised anthology of Native American literature. These are stories of the earth and the sky, of mourning and of love, of ceremonies and rites and rituals.

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About the Author:

Brian Swann is on the faculty of humanities and social sciences at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He recently edited Voices from Four Directions: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of North America and Algonquian Spirit: Contemporary Translations of the Algonquian Literatures of North America, both available from the University of Nebraska Press.

From Library Journal:

The first Europeans paid little mind to the song, dances, and ceremonies of the Native Americans, dismissing them as the noises of "demons and the damned" and "the cries and howling of wolves." It was only late in the 19th century, in the face of the apparent passing from the scene of the native way of life, that the documentation of the disappearing cultures was pursued with any urgency. Swann (English, Cooper Union, New York) has put together a collection of native songs that were nearly lost. These are not literal translations?he has not worked with the Native languages, though the actual translators and the sources of their works are cited?but versions of the original songs. There is a great range and variety here, and a common ground: open forms, organic rhythms, and a tendency to incantation and rich imagery. The matter is of the land and living, of links with the past and hopes for the future. Swann's volume will give many good reasons to sing. Recommended.?Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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