To the Driving Cloud
Addressing an Omaha chief walking through a crowded city, the speaker questions his people's future and places his claim to hunting grounds beside the land claims of Europe's starving poor. The speaker urges the chief to return west, then warns that river traffic and settler caravans threaten his people and drive Indigenous communities farther west.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Poetry, Social Commentary · 571 words
First lines
Gloomy and dark art thou, O chief of the mighty Omahas; / Gloomy and dark as the driving cloud, whose name thou hast taken! / Wrapt in thy scarlet blanket, I see thee stalk through the city's / Narrow and populous streets, as once by the margin of rivers / Stalked those birds unknown, that have left us only their footprints. / What, in a few short years, will remain of thy race but the footprints?
Genres
- Poetry — Long verse lines address an Omaha chief directly, comparing him to a dark cloud and describing forests, hunting grounds, and approaching settlers.
- Social Commentary — The speaker juxtaposes Indigenous land claims with European poverty and describes westward settlement as a threat to the chief's people.
Tags
Omaha chief · Indigenous displacement · westward settlement · land claims · European poverty · city streets
What this Textopian page supports
To the Driving Cloud is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry, Social Commentary
- Length: 571 words
- Structure: 1 section, 4 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for To the Driving Cloud by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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