How we cite our quotes: (Part.Line)
Quote #4
Learned of every bird its language,
Learned their names and all their
secrets (3.165-167)
Hiawatha spends his youngest years wandering through the forest and learning the secrets of nature. He does this not by conquering, but by listening. It's a good reminder that force isn't always the best way to connect with something.
Quote #5
Give me of your balm, O Fir-tree!
Of your balsam and your resin,
So to close the seams together (7.75-78)
Hiawatha constantly asks the natural world for help. When he builds a canoe, he asks the trees to give him resin and sap to help him plug all the holes in the bark. Many modern folks might just hack at the trees and take what they want, but Hiawatha shows respect in everything he does.
Quote #6
Till the sea-gulls came no longer,
And upon the sands lay nothing
But the skeleton of Nahma (8.262-264)
Mishe-Nahma's death might be one of the most powerful scenes in this whole book. Longfellow is especially eerie about the aftermath of the death, where dozens of seagulls come to eat the fish's oily flesh and strip his corpse until there's nothing left but his rack of bones. Ew.