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authorjbr's review
3.0
So, this is a lot.
I think Sigourney kind of wants this to be an epic on the scale of Homer or Virgil, by which she decides to bring in a bunch of history/mythology/religious allusion and outright reference. But as a result, it seems to wander a lot from actual Native Americans (or maybe I just misunderstood?). Along with the religious element, Sigourney clearly writes it to be a polemic, ending with almost a whole canto devoted to the altar call (“Care for your uncivilized, uneducated, mistreated Indian neighbors” to do a rough paraphrase). Yet, despite coming from a colonialist perspective, the end of Canto 3 is a damning rant against the mistreatment and persecution and slaughter of Native Americans.
The extensive footnotes are interesting though, but I must admit I didn’t read all of them.
Worth a read for Americanists or those fascinated by American religious poetry, but not for the average reader (but the average reader has probably never heard of it so that is probably not an issue).
I think Sigourney kind of wants this to be an epic on the scale of Homer or Virgil, by which she decides to bring in a bunch of history/mythology/religious allusion and outright reference. But as a result, it seems to wander a lot from actual Native Americans (or maybe I just misunderstood?). Along with the religious element, Sigourney clearly writes it to be a polemic, ending with almost a whole canto devoted to the altar call (“Care for your uncivilized, uneducated, mistreated Indian neighbors” to do a rough paraphrase). Yet, despite coming from a colonialist perspective, the end of Canto 3 is a damning rant against the mistreatment and persecution and slaughter of Native Americans.
The extensive footnotes are interesting though, but I must admit I didn’t read all of them.
Worth a read for Americanists or those fascinated by American religious poetry, but not for the average reader (but the average reader has probably never heard of it so that is probably not an issue).
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