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Table of Contents
Planting Song
Overview
“Planting Song” is an Osage poem. Through Barbara Tedlock's translation she gives it a concrete appearance or a plant. The poem is symmetrical; the stalk and leaves protrude out from the ground while the root are equally represented below the ground. The line “I make a footprint” repeats 36 times which clearly is used to emphasize the overall them of the poem. Who or what makes the footprint? Is it the person who plants because they have the ability to
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.
Context
The Osage is a Native American group that primarily resided in the Plains states of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Bibliography
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.
