. Nokomis warned Wenonah against the west – wind, but vainly so she “ Bore a son of love and sorrow.” Thus was born my Hiawatha. Hiawatha’s mother dies deserted by the faithless west – wind, and the “child of wonder” is reared by his grandmother Nokomis until he finds out about his mother and his fickle father. Despites Nokomis attempt to dissuade him, as he sets out to find his father, and he does. Mudjekeewis welcomes him because he brings back memories of “the beautiful Wenonah.” After they have talked for days, Hiawatha remembers his quarrel with his father, and they have a prodigious battle, resulting, in a draw, since neither can be killed. Hiawatha then returns to his people with his father’s injunction. He pauses only once on the way home, to purchase arrow from the ancient arrowmaker at the Falls of Minnehaha in the land of the Dacotahs. Here he becomes enamored of the arrow maker's dark-eyed daughter, for whom the falls are named. Thus from this you can see Hiawatha has a supernatural origin (Williams P.160-161). The Courtship of Miles Standish is third of four poems in a set. The characterization in The Courtship of Miles Standish is more detailed than in either Evangeline or Hiawatha, and the characters are presented more realistically and with greater sophistication. Humor appears notably for the first time and the balance is held nicely even between comedy and drama. Standish’s problem is that he himself loves Priscilla though he has never told her friends, Though he recognizes, that the impossible has been asked of him, he knows too that “the name of friendship is sacred,” and he has no power to deny what is asked of him in that name. For what came to be called “The New England conscience” is already well developed in him, and he tries not only to face up to his or deal but to regard is as God’s command and sor...
