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Leaves of Grass (1891-92)
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YONNONDIO.
[The sense of the word is lament for the aborigines. It is an Iroquois term; and has been used for a personal name.]
A song, a poem of itself—the word itself a dirge, |
Amid the wilds, the rocks, the storm and wintry night, |
To me such misty, strange tableaux the syllables calling up; |
Yonnondio—I see, far in the west or north, a limitless ravine,
with plains and mountains dark,
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I see swarms of stalwart chieftains, medicine-men, and warriors, |
As flitting by like clouds of ghosts, they pass and are gone in the
twilight,
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(Race of the woods, the landscapes free, and the falls! |
No picture, poem, statement, passing them to the future:) |
Yonnondio! Yonnondio!—unlimn'd they disappear; |
To-day gives place, and fades—the cities, farms, factories fade; |
A muffled sonorous sound, a wailing word is borne through the
air for a moment,
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Then blank and gone and still, and utterly lost. |
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