Charles Fenno Hoffman

Algonquin War Song

     "Pe Na Se-Wug"

Hear not ye their shrill-piping
 screams on the air?
Up! Braves, for the conflict
   prepare ye—prepare!
Aroused from the canebrake,
   far south, by your drum,
With beaks whet for carnage,
   the Battle Birds come.

Oh, God of my fathers,
   as swiftly as they,
I ask but to swoop
   from the hills on my prey;
Give this frame to the winds,
   on the Prairie below,
But my soul, like thy bolt,
   I would hurl on the foe!

On the forehead of Earth
   strikes the Sun in his might,
Oh gift me with glances
   as searching as light,
In the front of the onslaught
   to single each crest,
Till my hatchet grows red
   on their bravest and best.

Why stand ye back idly,
   ye Sons of the Lake!
Who boast of the scalp-locks
   ye tremble to take?
Fear-dreamers may linger,
   my skies are all bright—
On—on—to the War Path,[1]
   my God and my Right.