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| alcheringa:1-2:planting_song [2021/06/26 06:27] – james | alcheringa:1-2:planting_song [2021/10/04 23:39] (current) – dan |
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| ==== Overview ==== | ==== Overview ==== |
| "Planting Song" is an Osage poem. Through Barbara Tedlock's translation she gives it a concrete poem appearance that resembles a plant. The poem is visually symmetrical; the stalk and leaves protrude out from the ground while the roots are equally represented below the ground. The line "I make a footprint" repeats 36 times which clearly is used to emphasize the overall theme of the poem. Who or what makes the footprint? Is it the person who plants because they have the ability to do so or the person who harvests the plants to provide for the families? Although the footprint could be an actual impression made in the dirt, it's more than likely a symbol for the role and function of the farmer who provides for the tribe. | "Planting Song" is an Osage poem. Within the editorial notes, it states, "In a sound translation this song would have eleven four-line stanzas." Therefore, Barbara Tedlock translates the poem as a concrete piece visualizing a plant instead of the linear eleven stanza piece. The poem is visually symmetrical; the stalk and leaves protrude out from the ground while the roots are equally represented below the ground. The line "I make a footprint" repeats 36 times which clearly is used to emphasize the overall theme of the poem. |
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| | Barbara Tedlock is a professor of anthropology. Her husband Dennis Tedlock is one of the editors of //Alcheringa// in which this poem appears. |
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| ==== Commentary ==== | ==== Commentary ==== |
| "Planting Song" takes on a dual meaning. The name implies that it could be a song sung while planting or it may be a song about planting. Perhaps it may even be both. | "Planting Song" takes on a dual meaning. The name implies that it could be a song sung while planting or it may be a song about planting. Perhaps it may even be both. The refrain "I make a footprint" is essential in understanding the piece. Who or what makes the footprint? Is it the person who plants because they have the ability to do so or the person who harvests the plants to provide for the families? Although the footprint could be an actual impression made in the dirt, it's more than likely a symbol for the role and function of the farmer who provides for the tribe. |
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| ==== Context ==== | ==== Context ==== |
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| ==== Bibliography ==== | ==== Bibliography ==== |
| | //Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution//, 36th, U. S. Govt. Print. Off, 1895, https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/annualreportofbu36smithso |
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| | Burns, Louis Francis. //Osage Indian Bands and Clans//. United States, Clearfield, 2001. |
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| //Osage Nation//, 2021, www.osagenation-nsn.gov/. | //Osage Nation//, 2021, www.osagenation-nsn.gov/. |
| Osage Nation. “Planting Song.” //Alcheringa First Series//, Translated by Barbara Tedlock and edited by Dennis Tedlock and Jerome Rothenberg, vol. 1, no. 2, 1976, pp. 35. https://media.sas.upenn.edu/jacket2/pdf/reissues/alcheringa/Alcheringa_1-2_Summer-1971.pdf. | Osage Nation. “Planting Song.” //Alcheringa First Series//, Translated by Barbara Tedlock and edited by Dennis Tedlock and Jerome Rothenberg, vol. 1, no. 2, 1976, pp. 35. https://media.sas.upenn.edu/jacket2/pdf/reissues/alcheringa/Alcheringa_1-2_Summer-1971.pdf. |
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| {{tag>[Poem, Native America, Osage, Tedlock]}} | {{tag>[Poem Native-American Song Osage Tedlock]}} |
