The Mohawk Princess: Emily Pauline Johnson I stow the sail, unship the mast: I wooed you long but my wooing's past; My paddle will lull you into rest. O! drowsy wind of the drowsy west, Sleep, sleep, By your mountain steep, Or down where the prairie grasses sweep! Now fold in slumber your laggard wings, For soft is the song my paddle sings. Back to Lecture Outline

* Lecture Notes *

PowerPoint Slides

Emily Pauline Johnson (her adopted name was Tekahionwake, meaning “double wampum”) was a poet born on the Six Nations Indian reserve near Brantford in 1861 who died in 1913. Johnson was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and an Englishwoman, and is best known for her poetry celebrating her Indian heritage. We will look at several examples in class, and her poetry was both critically acclaimed and popular during her lifetime. In the 1890s and the early 1900s, Johnson embarked on speaking tours across Canada, the United States, and Britain, dressing up as an Indian princess. We will look at her background, her portrayal in the public eye, and how she expressed a sense of nationalism through her writings.

Reading:

Marilyn J. Rose, “Johnson, Emily Pauline,” in DCB

“The Song My Paddle Sings”
West wind, blow from your prairie nest
Blow from the mountains, blow from the west.
The sail is idle, the sailor too;
O! wind of the west, we wait for you.
Blow, blow!
I have wooed you so,
But never a favour you bestow.
You rock your cradle the hills between,
But scorn to notice my white lateen.

I stow the sail, unship the mast:
I wooed you long but my wooing's past;
My paddle will lull you into rest.
O! drowsy wind of the drowsy west,
Sleep, sleep,
By your mountain steep,
Or down where the prairie grasses sweep!
Now fold in slumber your laggard wings,
For soft is the song my paddle sings.

August is laughing across the sky,
Laughing while paddle, canoe and I,
Drift, drift,
Where the hills uplift
On either side of the current swift.

The river rolls in its rocky bed;
My paddle is plying its way ahead;
Dip, dip,
While the waters flip
In foam as over their breast we slip.

And oh, the river runs swifter now;
The eddies circle about my bow.
Swirl, swirl!
How the ripples curl
In many a dangerous pool awhirl!

And forward far the rapids roar,
Fretting their margin for evermore.
Dash, dash,
With a mighty crash,
They seethe, and boil, and bound, and splash.

Be strong, O paddle! be brave, canoe!
The reckless waves you must plunge into.
Reel, reel.
On your trembling keel,
But never a fear my craft will feel.

We've raced the rapid, we're far ahead!
The river slips through its silent bed.
Sway, sway,
As the bubbles spray
And fall in tinkling tunes away.

And up on the hills against the sky,
A fir tree rocking its lullaby,
Swings, swings,
Its emerald wings,
Swelling the song that my paddle sings.

Further Reading

C. Gray, Flint & Feather is the definitive biography, and contains a rich bibliography.

“The Pauline Johnson Archive”

Poetry by E. Pauline Johnson

The White Wampum. London: John Lane, 1895.

Canadian Born. Toronto: Musson, 1903.

Flint and Feather: the Complete Poems of E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake). Toronto: Musson, 1912 and various later editions.

Poems available online at:
http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~pjohnson/writings.html

Collected Stories by E. Pauline Johnson

Legends of Vancouver. Vancouver: Thompson Stationery Co., 1911.

Shagganappi. Toronto: Briggs, 1913.

The Moccasin Maker. Toronto, William Briggs, 1913. Reprinted Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 1987.

Books and Articles About E. Pauline Johnson

Brant, Beth. “The good red road: journeys of homecoming in Native women's writing.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 21:1 (1997).

Brant, Beth. Writing as Witness, Essay and Talk. Toronto: Women's Press, 1994.

Monture, R. "Beneath the British Flag": Iroquois and Canadian Nationalism in the Work of Pauline Johnson and Duncan Campbell Scott. Essays on Canadian Writing no. 75 (Winter 2002).

Fiamengo, J. Reconsidering Pauline. Canadian Literature no. 167 (Winter 2000).

Foster, W. Garland. The Mohawk Princess. Vancouver: Lions' Gate, 1931.

Francis, Daniel. The Imaginary Indian: The Image of the Indian in Canadian Culture. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 1992.

Gerson, C. "The most Canadian of all Canadian poets": Pauline Johnson and the construction of a national literature. Canadian Literature no. 158 (Aut 1998).

Keller, Betty. Pauline: A Biography of Pauline Johnson. Vancouver: Douglas, 1981.

Leighton, M.E. Performing Pauline Johnson: representations of "the Indian poetess" in the periodical press, 1892-95. Essays on Canadian Writing no. 65 (Fall 1998) p. 141-64

Lukens, M. "A Being of a New World:" The Ambiguity of Mixed Blood in Pauline Johnson's "My Mother". MELUS v. 27 no. 3 (Fall 2002).

Lyon, G.W. "Pauline Johnson: a Reconsideration". Studies in Canadian Literature 66:2 (1992).

Mair, Charles. "Pauline Johnson: An Appreciation." Canadian Magazine 41.3 (1913): 281-83.

McKay, Isabel Ecclestone. "Pauline Johnson: A Reminiscence." Canadian Magazine 41.3 (1913): 273-78.

McRaye, Walter. Pauline Johnson and Her Friends. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1947.

McRaye, Walter. "East and West with Pauline Johnson." Canadian Magazine 40.5 (1923): 381-89; 40.6 (1923): 494-502.

Ruoff, A.L.B. Justice for Indians and women: the protest fiction of Alice Callahan and Pauline Johnson. World Literature Today v. 66 (Spring 1992).

Shrive, Norman. "What Happened to Pauline?" Canadian Literature 13 (1962): 25-38.

Strong-Boag, V. and C. Gerson. Paddling Her Own Canoe: The Times and Texts of E.Pauline Johnson Tekahionwake. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.

Van Steen, Marcus. Pauline Johnson: Her Life and Work. Toronto: Musson, 1965.

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