Customer Reviews

Hiawatha

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Poor Hiawatha! For years, this great American poem of the 19th century has been relegated to the children's poetry shelves, where it lies languishing, despite several fine picture book editions of parts of it. Parodied almost upon publication, notably by Lewis Carroll, its heavy beat, taken from a Finnish epic, has been thought of as archsoporific. To use Shaw's phrase for late Ibsen drama, it has to be really DONE. And it is in this superb, unabriged recording. The producers and reader William Hootkins have trusted the poem itself, and Longfellow's intentions, not the parodists. The result? The restoration of an American classic, one of the first truly populist works in the canon of American poetry. The richness of the language and the stirring images, especially of Hiawatha and Mudgikeewis, are there to be revelled in. Should you ask me, is it worth it, is this reading worth the effort, I should say, Do but listen, do but stop and hear the heartbeats! Excellent, and very much needed!