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.
Her most famous poem, "The Song My Paddle Sings",
celebrates part of that
heritage. It has been read by thousands of Canadian school children.
But she should be remembered for more than this poem. Her life, career and
travels show that she was a woman who dared to do unexpected things
and who was proud of where she came from. In her own time she was, as
Mohawk writer Beth Brant says, a revolutionary. (Source: Beth Brant, Writing as Witness: Essays and Talk.
Toronto: Women's Press, 1994, page 6.)
