Cycle of the West
Encyclopedia
A Cycle of the West is a collection of five epic poems
(called "Songs") written and published over a nearly thirty-year span by John G. Neihardt
. As one extended work of literature, the Cycle treats historical topics from the American settlement of the Great Plains
and the displacement of the Native American
cultures there.
Each poem is written as enjambed
heroic couplet
s in several chapters. As Neihardt gained experience with the form, he began to close chapters, and often verse paragraphs, in the middle of a line, with the first line of the next chapter completing both the suspended line and rhyme. The effect is to pull the speaker forward until the only completely resolved couplet is the one at the end of the Song.
By internal chronological order, the five songs are (with the date of first publication):
s.
The story begins in 1822 - and follows an expedition of Major Andrew Henry
during a series of arduous journeys over the Trans-Missouri region: following the Grand
, Missouri
and Yellowstone
River
s.
The poem examines the exploits of three trappers - Will Carpenter, Mike Fink, and Frank Talbeau - who through shared experiences have developed a close friendship. But the bonds of friendship uniting the trio explode after Will succeeds in wooing the Indian girl who had stolen Mike's heart. Mike's jealously leads to murder: the remaining cantos complete the narrative, in which only one of the original three will survive to tell the tale.
s.
The story begins in 1823 - just after the Leavenworth campaign against the Arikara Indians
- and follows an expedition of Major Andrew Henry
during a series of arduous journeys over the Trans-Missouri region.
The poem describes the friendship that springs up between two trappers - an older man named Hugh Glass, and a younger named Jamie - who fight, scout and hunt together in the wilds. The story is set when Jamie and a companion betray Hugh: Hugh is abandoned - alive, and badly wounded - to die by the Missouri; to allow Jamie and his companion to safely flee the enmity of hostile Indians in the vicinity. Jamie and his fellow cover their cowardice with a specious lie: that they left only after Hugh died of natural causes, whereupon they first buried him before riding north to rejoin the trapping-party.
But against all odds - Hugh survives. Regaining consciousness and finding himself alone, Hugh shrewdly deduces the identity of those who betrayed him. Then - fired by a relentless hate to punish those who left him to die - Hugh claws his painful way back to the land of the living: but only to set out to track down his betrayers and deal out some requisite summary justice.
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
(called "Songs") written and published over a nearly thirty-year span by John G. Neihardt
John Neihardt
Johnathan Gneisenau Neihardt was an American author of poetry and prose, an amateur historian and ethnographer, and a philosopher of the Great Plains...
. As one extended work of literature, the Cycle treats historical topics from the American settlement of the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
and the displacement of the Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
cultures there.
Each poem is written as enjambed
Enjambment
Enjambment or enjambement is the breaking of a syntactic unit by the end of a line or between two verses. It is to be contrasted with end-stopping, where each linguistic unit corresponds with a single line, and caesura, in which the linguistic unit ends mid-line...
heroic couplet
Heroic couplet
A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used for epic and narrative poetry; it refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines. The rhyme is always masculine. Use of the heroic couplet was first pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in...
s in several chapters. As Neihardt gained experience with the form, he began to close chapters, and often verse paragraphs, in the middle of a line, with the first line of the next chapter completing both the suspended line and rhyme. The effect is to pull the speaker forward until the only completely resolved couplet is the one at the end of the Song.
By internal chronological order, the five songs are (with the date of first publication):
- The Song of Three Friends (1919)
- The Song of Hugh Glass (1915)
- The Song of Jed Smith (1941)
- The Song of the Indian Wars (1925)
- The Song of the Messiah (1935)
The Song of Three Friends
This poem comprises eight cantoCanto
The canto is a principal form of division in a long poem, especially the epic. The word comes from Italian, meaning "song" or singing. Famous examples of epic poetry which employ the canto division are Lord Byron's Don Juan, Valmiki's Ramayana , Dante's The Divine Comedy , and Ezra Pound's The...
s.
The story begins in 1822 - and follows an expedition of Major Andrew Henry
Andrew Henry (fur trader)
Major Andrew Henry was an American fur trader who, with William H. Ashley started the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1822...
during a series of arduous journeys over the Trans-Missouri region: following the Grand
Grand River (Missouri)
The Grand River is a river that stretches from northernmost tributary origins between Creston and Winterset in Iowa approximately to its mouth on the Missouri River near Brunswick, Missouri....
, Missouri
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
and Yellowstone
Yellowstone River
The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the western United States. Considered the principal tributary of the upper Missouri, the river and its tributaries drain a wide area stretching from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of the Yellowstone National...
River
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
s.
The poem examines the exploits of three trappers - Will Carpenter, Mike Fink, and Frank Talbeau - who through shared experiences have developed a close friendship. But the bonds of friendship uniting the trio explode after Will succeeds in wooing the Indian girl who had stolen Mike's heart. Mike's jealously leads to murder: the remaining cantos complete the narrative, in which only one of the original three will survive to tell the tale.
The Song of Hugh Glass
This poem comprises five cantoCanto
The canto is a principal form of division in a long poem, especially the epic. The word comes from Italian, meaning "song" or singing. Famous examples of epic poetry which employ the canto division are Lord Byron's Don Juan, Valmiki's Ramayana , Dante's The Divine Comedy , and Ezra Pound's The...
s.
The story begins in 1823 - just after the Leavenworth campaign against the Arikara Indians
Arikara War
The Arikara War took place in August of 1823 between the United States and the Arikara native Americans near the Missouri River, in present-day South Dakota. Arikara warriors had previously attacked a trapping expedition traveling on the river. The United States responded with forces of 230...
- and follows an expedition of Major Andrew Henry
Andrew Henry (fur trader)
Major Andrew Henry was an American fur trader who, with William H. Ashley started the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1822...
during a series of arduous journeys over the Trans-Missouri region.
The poem describes the friendship that springs up between two trappers - an older man named Hugh Glass, and a younger named Jamie - who fight, scout and hunt together in the wilds. The story is set when Jamie and a companion betray Hugh: Hugh is abandoned - alive, and badly wounded - to die by the Missouri; to allow Jamie and his companion to safely flee the enmity of hostile Indians in the vicinity. Jamie and his fellow cover their cowardice with a specious lie: that they left only after Hugh died of natural causes, whereupon they first buried him before riding north to rejoin the trapping-party.
But against all odds - Hugh survives. Regaining consciousness and finding himself alone, Hugh shrewdly deduces the identity of those who betrayed him. Then - fired by a relentless hate to punish those who left him to die - Hugh claws his painful way back to the land of the living: but only to set out to track down his betrayers and deal out some requisite summary justice.
External links
- The Song of Three Friends at the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
. - The Song of Hugh Glass at the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
. - The Song of Hugh Glass audiobook at LibriVoxLibriVoxLibriVox is an online digital library of free public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers and is probably, since 2007, the world's most prolific audiobook publisher...
.