Mapping Indigenous Poetry of North America, 1830-1924

"The Sleeping Giant" by E. Pauline Johnson

(Thunder Bay, Lake Superior)

When did you sink to your dreamless sleep
    Out there in your thunder bed? 
Where the tempests sweep,
And the waters leap,
    And the storms rage overhead. 

Were you lying there on your couch alone 
    Ere Egypt and Rome were born? 
Ere the Age of Stone, 
Or the world had known 
    The Man with the Crown of Thorn. 

The winds screech down from the open west,
    And the thunders beat and break 
On the amethyst
Of your rugged breast, — 
    But you never arise or wake. 

You have locked your past, and you keep the key
    In your heart 'neath the westing sun,
Where the mighty sea 
And its shores will be 
    Storm-swept ill the world is done. 

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