When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry
by Joy Harjo (Editor), Jennifer Elise Foerster (Editor), LeAnne Howe (Editor)
On This Page
Description
"United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo gathers the work of more than 160 poets, representing nearly 100 indigenous nations, into the first historically comprehensive Native poetry anthology. This landmark anthology celebrates the indigenous peoples of North America, the first poets of this country, whose literary traditions stretch back centuries. Opening with a blessing from Pulitzer Prize-winner N. Scott Momaday, the book contains powerful introductions from contributing editors who show more represent the five geographically organized sections. Each section begins with a poem from traditional oral literatures and closes with emerging poets, ranging from Eleazar, a seventeenth-century Native student at Harvard, to Jake Skeets, a young Diné poet born in 1991, and including renowned writers such as Luci Tapahanso, Natalie Diaz, Layli Long Soldier, and Ray Young Bear. When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through offers the extraordinary sweep of Native literature, without which no study of American poetry is complete"-- show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
A book of poetry from poets with uniquely distinct voices. Many of the poems break new ground for me - expanding my perspective and exposing me to new ideas. I am enjoying taking bites out of different sections and nibbling at the huge range of authors...[in progress]
Not surprisingly, Debbie Reese highly recommends.
poetry,
poetry, anthology
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Native American Heritage
52 works; 2 members
Native American / Indigenous Literature
172 works; 100 members
Author Information
Joy Harjo is an internationally known performer and writer of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation, the author of ten books of poetry and a memoir, Crazy Brave. A critically acclaimed poet, her many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, and the American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the show more Arts Award. She currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. show less
All Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry
- Original publication date
- 2020
- Epigraph
- A BLESSING
PRAYER FOR WORDS
My voice retore for me.
Dine.
Here is the wind bending the reeds westward,
The patchwork of morning on gray moraine:
Had I words I could tell the origin,
Of God's h... (show all)ands bloody with birth at first liht,
Of my thin squeals in the heat of his breath,
Of the taste of being, the bitterness,
The scents of camas root and chokecherries.
And, God, if my mute heart expresses me,
I am the rolling thunder and the burst
Of torrent upon rock, the whispering
Of old leaves, the silence of deep canyons.
I am the rattle of mortality.
I could tell of the splintered son. I could
Articulate the night sky, had I words.
-N. Scott Momaday - First words
- We begin with the land. We emerge from the earth of our mother, and our bodies will be returned to earth. We are the land. We cannot own it, no matter any proclamation by paper state. We are literally the land, a planet. Our ... (show all)spirits inhabit this place. We are not the only ones. We are creators of this place with each other. We mark our existence with our creations. It is poetry that holds the songs of becoming, of change, of dreaming, and it is poetry we turn to when we travel those places of transformation, like birth, coming of age, marriage, accomplishments, and death. We sing our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren: our human experience in time, into and through existence. -Introduction, Joy Harjo
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 811.008
- Canonical LCC
- PS591.I55 W47
Classifications
- Genres
- Poetry, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 811.008 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American poetry Specific kinds of poetry {only by more than one author} Modified standard subdivisions Collections of literary texts
- LCC
- PS591 .I55 .W47 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Collections of American literature Poetry
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 380
- Popularity
- 82,596
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.21)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
