SOURCE: “The Lore of Hiawatha,” in Longfellow's Country, The Baker and Taylor Co., 1909, pp. 177-225.

In the following essay, Clarke delves into the background legends and stories that inspired Longfellow's poem and describes how the poet adapted and changed them.

In turning to Indian stories for subject-matter for his poetry, Longfellow has done our literature a lasting service by adopting into it an entirely new range of folk-lore. It is often remarked that we can never have a distinctively American literature because we have no folk-lore of our own. Where is the culture-race that does possess a folk-lore exclusively its own? The French writers have either harked back to the classics or adopted the legends of Normandy or Brittany; the English writers have either harked back to the classics or adopted Celtic and Welsh legends into their literature. Push back the history of any people far enough and...