Category: Poem

Categories
1900s Poem

The Dog to the Man

The Dog to the Man

By Clinton Dangerfield [1]
Annotations by Kathryn T. Burt
J. Alden Weir[2], Hunter and Dogs, ca. 1912, oil on canvas, 36 x 32 1/8 in.. Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of Mrs. Charles Burlingham, 1973.50. CCO.
We two, we two, in dead primeval days[3]
    Swore to be allies[4]. Through strange fields and wide,
Pregnant with snarling dangers, across streams
     Where misbegotten monsters lashed the tide.

Through canon rifts, formed when chaotic strength
    Tore open many a mountain's shaken heart,
I followed you—in peril or in peace
    Anxiously swift to do a faithful part.

Century after century passed away.
    The nations changed; but I have never changed.[5]
Loyal I follow still the feet of man,
    A loyal friend who cannot be estranged.

Yet now life's complex ways bewilder me.
    My false alarms your patience often fret,
And I am made ashamed![6] But countless years
    Have linked us two. And shall we then forget?
Dangerfield, Clinton. “The Dog to the man.” The Youth’s companion, Aug. 1904, 398.

[1] Clinton Dangerfield is the pen name of Ella Howard Bryan.

[2] Learn about Weir and his artwork at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

[3] Current research places the domestication of wild dogs somewhere between 15,000-20,000 years ago in Eurasia (Perri).

[4] Many archaeologists theorize humans initially domesticated dogs for hunting purposes, though by 1912 dogs in America had taken on roles as home and livestock guardians, sled dogs, herding dogs, and companions (Miklósi et al.).

[5] At the turn of the 19th century, America was dealing with a number of political, industrial, and population changes. You can learn more about this tumultuous time from the Library of Congress.

[6] Have you ever heard an adult get upset when their dog barks at nothing? That frustration is probably what the dog narrating this poem is talking about in these lines.

Contexts

Briefly describe contemporaneous events, literary, political, or historical (for example, I could augment “The Great Blue Heron” with information about bird extinction, the Audubon Society, or the Lacey Act). This information could also include a description of a selection’s placement in an anthology, or it could include materials like music. Anything you think will interest readers and/or help scholars is fair game.

Resources for Further Study
  • Bethke, Brandi, And Burtt, Amanda, Eds. Dogs: Archaeology Beyond Domestication. Gainsville: University Press Of Florida, 2020.
  • Miklósi, Ádám, Tamás Faragó, Claudia Fugazza, Márta Gácsi, Enikő Kubinyi, Péter Pongrácz, And József Topál. The Dog: A Natural History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.
Pedagogy

Since this poem is meant to be a dog speaking his thoughts to his owner, consider writing a response. If this poem’s narrator was your dog, what would you say? Bonus points if you write your response as a poem!

Contemporary Connections

“Contemporary Connections”—thoughts about texts’ current significance.

Categories
1900s Poem

Little Boy Bad and Little Girl Rude

Little Boy Bad and Little Girl Rude

By Madison Julius Cawein
Annotations by Maggie Kelly
Frederic Dorr Steele. Boy and Girl in Cemetery. Drawing in ink, c. 1910. Library of
Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
I 
Little Boy Bad, a way he had
Of making his father and mother mad;
Until one day he ran away
To a wood where the cats of the witches stay.
And there he tarried awhile to play,
For a little while in the witches' way.

II 
When night drew nigh he heard a cry,
And in every bush he saw an eye.
Then, three by three, from every tree
Big coal-black cats came stealthily,
With great green eyes that seemed to be
As big as the moon in a graveyard tree.

III 
Upon the ground they ringed him round,
And glared at him without a sound;
And with the glare he felt his hair
Rise slowly, slowly in despair,
While hard he shook from feet to hair.

IV 
Then down the gloom, upon her broom,
An old hag-witch came shrieking, “Room!”
Then snarled, “Hold tight! You're mine to-night!”
And grabbed and whisked him out of sight.—
And no one's seen him since that night.
Rosina Emmet Sherwood. The Witch and the Fat School Boy.
Pen and ink drawing, c. 1888. Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
V  
Little Girl Rude was never good,
And never did the thing she should.
And so one day she ran away
To a wood where the owls of the goblins stay:
And there for a while she stopped to play,
For a little while in the goblins' way.

VI  
When night drew near she seemed to hear
A noise of wings in the ivy sere;
Then a hooting cry went shuddering by;
And in every tree she saw an eye,
A great round eye in each tree near by.

VII  
Then, two by two, from the ivy flew
Gaunt ghost-gray owls with eyes steel-blue:
And, wing to wing, within a ring,
Around her they began to swing,
And made the woods with hootings ring.

VIII  
And, as the brood tu-whit-tu-whooed,
Oh, how she wished she had been good!
Her hair arose; from head to toes
Her marrow slowly, slowly froze,
While hard she shivered, teeth and toes.

IX 
And then she saw a hairy claw
Reach from beneath and clutch and draw,
Till in the ground her feet she found
While goblin laughter circled round.—
And since that night she's not been found.
Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott. I’m Here, She
Announced Timidly, To Whom it Might Concern.
Charcoal drawing, c. 1905. Library of Congress
Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

Cawein, Madison Julius. “Little Boy Bad And Little Girl Rude,” in The Giant and the Star: Little Annals in Rhyme, 139. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1909.

Contexts

The entire text of Cawein’s book is available through the University of Michigan’s American Verse Project.

Categories
1860s Poem

The Cow-boy’s Song

Direct capture

The Cow-boy’s Song[1]

By Anna M. Wells
Annotations by Will Smith
Louis Emmanuel Soulange-Tessier. Boy with Cow and Calf by River. Copy after Rosa
Bonheur, lithograph on paper, n.d. Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick
Gallery, Washington, D.C.
"Mooly cow, mooly cow, home from the wood
They sent me to fetch you as fast as I could.
The sun has gone down: it is time to go home.
Mooly cow, mooly cow, why don't you come?
Your udders are full, and the milkmaid is there, 
And the children all waiting their supper to share.
I have let the long bars down, — why don't you pass through?"
     The mooly cow only said, "Moo-o-o!"

"Mooly cow, mooly cow, have you not been 
Regaling all day where the pastures are green?
No doubt it was pleasant, dear mooly, to see
The clear running brook and the wide-spreading tree, 
The clover to crop, and the streamlet to wade, 
To drink the cool water and lie in the shade;
But now it is night: they are waiting for you."
     The mooly cow only said, "Moo-o-o!"

"Mooly cow, mooly cow, where do you go, 
When all the green pastures are covered with snow?
You go to the barn, and we feed you with hay,
And the maid goes to milk you there, every day;
She pats you, she loves you, she strokes your sleek hide,
She speaks to you kindly, and sits by your side:
Then come along home, pretty mooly cow, do."
     The mooly cow only said, "Moo-o-o!"

"Mooly cow, mooly cow, whisking your tail, 
The milkmaid is waiting, I say, with her pail;
She tucks up her petticoats, tidy and neat, 
And places the three-legged stool for her seat: —
What can you be staring at, mooly? You know
That we ought to have gone home an hour ago.
How dark it is growing! O, what shall I do?"
     The mooly cow only said, "Moo-o-o!"
Artist unknown. Original illustration from Our Young Folks p. 466.
Wells, Anna M. “The Cow-Boy’s Song.” Our Young Folks: An illustrated magazine for boys and girls 2, No. 8 (August 1866): 466-467.
Contexts

The year of this poem’s publication also saw the official end of the United States Civil War and the creation of the nickel. At this point, the U.S. contained 36 states, with the most recent addition being Nevada in 1864. As is depicted in the poem, children at this time were responsible for helping with often-difficult chores.

Resources for Further Study

[1] The Oxford English Dictionary credits Jonathan Swift with the first usage of the term “cow-boy” in his 1735 poem “A Receipt to Restore Stella’s Youth.” The term referred to “A boy who tends cows” and was originally written as “cow-boy” or “cow boy.”

In Webster’s Little Folks’ Speaker (1875), readers are encouraged to “Give this piece a coaxing tone of voice, and imitate the ‘mooing’ of a cow at the end of each stanza” (40).

Categories
1830s Poem

Children in Slavery

Children in Slavery

By Eliza Lee Cabot Follen
Annotations by Jessica Abell/JB
James E. Larkin. Albumen Print of Enslaved Women and Their Children near Alexandria, Virginia. Albumen and silver on paper, c. 1861-1862, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. [1]
When children play the livelong day,
   Like birds and butterflies;
As free and gay, sport life away,
   And know not care nor sighs:
Then earth and air seem fresh and fair,
   All peace below, above:
Life's flowers are there, and everywhere
   Is innocence and love.

When children pray with fear all day,
   A blight must be at hand:
Then joys decay, and birds of prey
   Are hovering o'er the land:
When young hearts weep as they go to sleep,
   Then all the world seems sad:
The flesh must creep, and woes are deep
   When children are not glad.
Follen, Eliza Lee Cabot. “Children in Slavery,” in Poems, 175. Boston: William Crosby & Company, 1839.
Contexts

Follen was one of many 19th-century writers who published works on slavery—Poems includes several other verses on the subject: “Where is Thy Brother” (135-36), “Remember the Slave” (138-39), “For the Fourth of July” (173-74), and “The Captive Eagle” (183-84). Baylor University’s Armstrong Browning Library and Museum highlights the anti-slavery writings of several authors who appear elsewhere in this anthology.

Resources for Further Study
[1] From the museum description:

An albumen print on paper with a purple, reddish-brown hue depicting two adult women and seven children pictured, from left to right: William, Lucinda, Fannie (seated on Lucinda’s lap), Mary (in cradle), Frances (standing), Martha, Julia (behind Martha), Harriet, and Charles or Marshall. Lucinda Hughes and Frances Hughes were sisters-in-law through Frances’s husband David. The group is posed outside in front of bare trees, one woman is posed as if ironing. Baskets and a dog or dollhouse are placed around the group. The women and their children were enslaved at the time this photograph was taken on a plantation just west of Alexandria, Virginia, that belonged to Felix Richards. Frances and her children were enslaved by Felix, while Lucinda and her children were enslaved by his wife, Amelia Macrae Richards. On the recto, an inscription is written in pencil on the paper mount below the image that reads: “Felix Richards slaves”. On the verso, an inscription is written in pencil along the top center of the paper mount that reads “Felix Richards lived at ‘Volusia’ / Near Alexandria, VA.” 

Categories
1860s Poem Seasons

The name of it is “autumn”

The name of it is “autumn”

By Emily Dickinson
Annotations by JOSH BENJAMIN
Artist Unknown. The Basin, cut by the Pemagewasset river from solid granite, Franconia Notch, White Mts., N.H., U.S.A. Photograph, 1909, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. [1]

The name – of it – is “Autumn” –
The hue – of it – is Blood –
An Artery – opon the Hill –
A Vein – along the Road –

Great Globules – in the Alleys –
And Oh, the Shower of Stain –
When Winds – upset the Basin –
And spill the Scarlet Rain –

It sprinkles Bonnets – far below –
It gathers ruddy Pools –
Then – eddies like a Rose – away –
Opon Vermillion Wheels –

Dickinson’s handwritten version from the Emily Dickinson Archive.
DICKINSON, EMILY. “The name of it is ‘autumn’.” Emily Dickinson Archive: https://www.edickinson.org/editions/1/image_sets/12174856
Contexts

The Youth’s Companion published this poem on September 8, 1892, with the title “Autumn.” Dickinson may have been writing with the Civil War in mind. The autumn of 1862 was particularly violent, most notably with the Battle of Antietam on September 17, which may have been near the same time Dickinson composed this poem. This is considered the authoritative version of the poem; while most of her poems are copyrighted by Harvard, they are available to everyone at the Emily Dickinson Archive, linked in “Resources” below. Dickinson made notes on possible changes, such as the alternative last line printed in The Youth’s Companion: “And Leaves me with the Hills.”

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

globule: a round drop (of water or other liquid); a small round particle of a substance.

ruddy: designating an emotion which causes the face to go red, as shame, anger, etc. Of the face, complexion, etc.: red or reddish, as indicative of good health; rosy.

vermilion: having the colour of vermilion; of a bright red or scarlet colour.

Resources for Further Study

[1] Possibly the basin that Dickinson had in mind while writing. Cody, David. “Blood in the Basin: The Civil War in Emily Dickinson’s ‘The Name of It Is Autumn’.” The Emily Dickinson Journal 12, no. 1 (2003): 25–52.

Categories
1830s Poem

Annie’s Garden

Annie’s Garden

By Eliza Lee Cabot Follen
Annotations by Jessica Abell/JB
Original illustration by L.B. Humphrey from the 1875 edition of Little Songs.
In little Annie's Garden 
   Grew all sorts of posies;
There were pinks, and mignonette,
   And tulips, and roses.

Sweet peas, and morning glories,
   A bed of violets blue,
And marigolds, and asters,
   In Annie's garden grew.

There the bees went for honey,
   And the humming-birds too;
And there the pretty butterflies
   And the lady-birds flew.

And there among her flowers,
   Every bright and pleasant day,
In her own pretty garden
   Little Annie went to play.
Original illustration (artist unknown) from the 1889 edition of Little Songs.
Follen, Eliza Lee Cabot. “Annie’s Garden,” in Little Songs, 13. Lee and Shepard, 1875.
Contexts

The 1875 version of Follen’s book of songs for children is another reprinting of an earlier publication. The first American edition was published in 1832, with a second, revised edition following in 1856. Follen died in 1860, but this printing referenced her 1856 illustrated volume in its preface:

“The ‘Little Songs’ of the lamented Eliza Lee Follen, were first published in 1832, with the object, as she stated in her preface, ‘to endeavor to catch something of that good-humored pleasantry, that musical nonsense, which makes Mother Goose so attractive to children of all ages.’ It has passed through numerous editions, and is now in universal demand. In the present edition, all the songs are retained. The illustrations were designed expressly for this work by Miss L. B. Humphrey. In sending it forth, the publishers heartily indorse the words of the author, in a former edition: ‘I will hope that the little folks will welcome this little book in its new dress, and make much of it; for it was at first made, and is now adorned with pictures, on purpose to please them.'”

Follen was well-educated and an early supporter of the antislavery movement in Massachusetts. She was a prolific writer of children’s poems and stories and published several volumes of her own work and translations of French writer François Fénelon. Following his 1840 death in a shipwreck, she began working on a memoir of his life, which she published in 1844 with an appendix that collected some of his poems, prayers, and speeches. Her death on January 26, 1860, was mourned in the February 3, 1860 edition of the Boston newspaper Liberator:

“A heavy cloud was over the Anti-Slavery Anniversary in Boston, last week, in consequence of the painful intelligence of the sudden death of the gifted, beloved, and greatly honored Mrs. Eliza Lee Follen, widow of the late Professor Charles Follen, at Brookline on Thursday, 27th ult. after an illness of a few days, of typhoid fever, aged 72 years and 6 months. A full tribute to her character and worth hereafter.”

On February 24, 1860, the Liberator published a longer article by A. S. Standard that claimed, “Mrs. Follen has been so long an integral part of the Anti-Slavery movement, that it is hard to understand how it can exist without her. Very few indeed, none but the very earliest founders, could claim precedence of her in its list of honor.”

Follen intended this song to be sung to the tune of “Malbrooke,” an alternate name for the French song “Marlbrough S’en Va-t-en Guerre” (Marlbrough Goes to War). In the mid-19th century, the melody was coupled with new English lyrics to become “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.”

Resources for Further Study

Categories
1850s Poem

George and his Dog

George and his Dog

By Lydia Maria Child
Annotations by Maggie Kelly/JB
Original illustration by an unknown artist for “George and his Dog” from
the 1854 edition of Flowers for Children Part I.
 George had a large and noble dog
     With hair as soft as silk;
  A few black spots upon his back,
     The rest as white as milk.

  And many a happy hour they had,
    In dull or shining weather;
  For, in the house, or in the fields,
    They always were together.

  It was rare fun to see them race,
     Through fields of bright red clover,
  And jump across the running brooks,
     George and his good dog Rover.

  The faithful creature knew full well
     When master wished to ride;
  And he would kneel down on the grass,
     While Georgy climbed his side.

  They both were playing in the field,
     When all at once they saw
  A little squirrel on a stump,
     With an acorn in his paw.

  Rover sent forth a loud bow-wow,
     And tried to start away;
  He thought to scare the little beast
     Would be a noble play.

  But George cried out, “For shame! for shame!
     You are so big and strong,
  To worry that poor little thing
    Would be both mean and wrong.”
Artist Unknown. Boy and Dog. Tintype with applied color,
c. 1865-1885.Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
The dog still looked with eager eye,
     And George could plainly see,
  It was as much as he could do,
     To let the squirrel be.

  The timid creature would have feared
     The dog so bold and strong,
  But he seemed to know the little boy
     Would let him do no wrong.

  He peeped in George's smiling face,
     And trusting to his care,
  He kept his seat upon the stump,
     And ate his acorn there.

  He felt a spirit of pure love
     Around the gentle boy,
  As if good angels, hovering there,
     Watched over him in joy.

  And true it is, the angels oft
     Good little George have led;
  They're with him in his happy play,
     They guard his little bed.

  They keep his heart so kind and true,
     They make his eye so mild;
  For dearly do the angels love
     A gentle little child.
Child, Lydia Maria. “George and his dog,” in Flowers for CHildren, 70. new york: C.s. Francis & co., 1854.
Contexts

From Child’s introduction to Flowers for Children Part I:

TO PARENTS.

Several years ago, I published a little periodical called The Juvenile Miscellany. It found favour in the eyes of parents and children; and since it has been out of print, I have had frequent requests to republish it. I did not think it advisable to do this. But I have concluded to publish a series of small books, under the title of Flowers for Children. About half of each of these volumes will consist of new articles written expressly for the occasion; and the other half will be a selection of what seem to me the best of my own articles, formerly published in the Juvenile Miscellany. Upon reviewing the work for this purpose, I find that my maturer judgment rejects some inaccuracies, some moral inferences, and many imperfections of style. I have therefore carefully re-written all the articles used in the present selection.

The story of the Christ-Child and the Poor Children was suggested by the account of the Redemption Institute at Hamburg, by Horace Mann, in his late admirable Report on Education. It would be well for all parents, teachers, and magistrates, to read that account, and receive deeply into their hearts the lesson it conveys.

Resources for Further Study
Categories
1920s Poem

Winter Sweetness

Winter Sweetness [1]

By Langston Hughes
Annotations by Kristina bowers
A microscope slide of a white snowflake on a black background.
Detail of “William Bentley’s Snowflake 990” by William Bentley, c.1890, albumen print. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 31, Image No. SIA2013-09130. CC/0
     The little house is sugar,
        Its roof with snow is piled,
     And from its tiny window,
        Peeps a maple-sugar child. [2]
Original text of “Winter Sweetness” as published in the January 1921 issue of The Brownies’ Book. Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
hughes, langston. “Winter Sweetness.” The Brownies’ book 2, no. 1 (january 1921): 27. https://www.loc.gov/item/22001351/

Painting of a house covered in snow with trees in the foreground.
Detail of “Winter in the Country” by George Henry Durrie, 1858, oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Open Access.

[1] “Winter Sweetness” was the first poem Langston Hughes published at 19.

[2] For more information see: Story Time: Essays on Children’s Literature from the Betsy Beinecke Shirley Collection.

Categories
1830s Poem

The Sugar Plums

Scan from color transparency

The Sugar Plums

By William Lloyd Garrison
Annotations by Celia Hawley
Samuel Halpert. Farm Interior. Oil on canvas, 1924. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

No, no, pretty sugar-plums! stay where you are!
Though my grandmother sent you to me from so far!
You look very nice, you would taste very sweet,
And I love you right well, yet not one will I eat.

For the poor slaves have labored, far down in the south,
To make you so sweet, and so nice for my mouth!
But I want no slaves toiling for me in the sun,
Driven on with the whip, till the long day is done. [1]

Perhaps some poor slave-child that hoed up the ground,
Round the cane in whose rich juice your sweetness was found, [2]
Was flogged till his mother cried sadly to see,
And I’m sure I want nobody beaten for me.

Artist Unknown. Sugar Cane Plantation, La. Stereograph, c. 1920s. Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.

Thus said little Fanny, and skipped off to play,
Leaving all her nice sugar-plums just where they lay;
As merry as if they had gone in her mouth,
And she had not cared for the slaves in the south. [3]

Garrison, William Lloyed. “The Sugar Plums,” IN Juvenile Poems: For the use of free American children, of every complexion, 18. Boston: Garrison & knapp, 1835.
Contexts

Who Writes for Black Children?: African American Children’s Literature before 1900, Katharine Capshaw and Anna Mae Duane, editors. The book references the Garrison’s Juvenile Poems and includes an excerpt by Garrison in its preface: “If … we desire to see our land delivered from the curse of prejudice and slavery, we must direct our efforts chiefly to the rising generation, whose minds are untainted, whose opinions unfashioned, and whose sympathies are true to nature in its purity.” The editors observe that Juvenile Poems is probably the first American book title that is consciously worded to include all children, regardless of race.

Free Produce Movement: This movement was about boycotting goods produced by slaves in Britain and America, and featured Quakers at its forefront.

Resources for Further Study
Contemporary Connections

PBS Interview: Before cotton, sugar established America’s reliance on slave labor

[1] “Sugar slavery was the key component in what historians call The Trade Triangle, a network whereby slaves were sent to work on New World plantations, the product of their labor was sent to a European capital to be sold and other goods were brought to Africa to purchase more slaves.” Heather Whipps; see resources below.

[2] About sugar cane: “White Gold, as British colonists called it, was the engine of the slave trade that brought millions of Africans to the Americas beginning in the early 16th-century.” Heather Whipps

[3] “The ‘free produce’ movement was a boycott of any goods produced with slave labour. It was seen as a way of fighting slavery by having consumers buy only produce from non-slave labour. The movement was active in North America from the beginning of the abolitionist movement of the 1790s to the end of slavery in the 1860s.” Heather Whipps

Categories
1870s Poem

Prairie Fires

George Caitlin painting of prairie fires, 1832. Courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum.
George Caitlin, Prairie Meadows Burning, 1832, oil on canvas. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.374. CC/0

Prairie Fires

By Eudora May Stone, age 13
ANNOTATIONS BY KAREN L. KILCUP
George Caitlin painting of prairie fires, 1832. Courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum.
George Caitlin, Prairie Meadows Burning, 1832, oil on canvas. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.374. CC/0

The autumn frost begins to blight,      
But here and there late blossoms linger:       
The maple leaves are glowing bright, 
Red-painted all by Autumn’s finger. 

The birds are gone; the chill wind grieves[1]       
Among the dry and withered grasses,
And showers of gold or scarlet leaves
It flings from every tree it passes.[2]

But, see, a spark has fallen there         
Among the grasses of the prairie;      
And high and higher in the air
The flames are leaping light and airy.

Now, farmers, guard your hoarded grain;
The flames are wider, fiercer growing,
And urging on the fiery train,
The raging wind is wildly blowing.

The sun sinks low, the waning light
Is fading fast from hills and meadows;
The night, so strangely, grandly bright,
Mantles the earth in fitful shadows.

Now fiercer still the wild winds blow –­
The sky the fiery color catches;
And brighter yet the red flames glow,
And wide the blackened prairie stretches.

Illustration from the original text of “Prairie Fires.” Public domain.
St. Nicholas Magazine 1, no. 2 (September 1874): 629.

[1] Stone anthropomorphizes the wind, inviting readers to perceive it as having agency.

[2] The falling leaves add to the potential fuel of “the dry and withered grasses.”

Contexts

Prairie fires were common events in the nineteenth century, and they remain so today. According to History Nebraska, “The first settlers of Nebraska found a vast expanse of bluestem, which could be highly flammable. The danger was greatest during the late autumn of a dry season before the winter’s snows or after the snow melted during a dry spring. Smoke indicating a prairie fire was sometimes visible for days, and the horizon correspondingly illuminated at night. Fires sometimes originated as far away as Dakota Territory.”

The same source observes that fires were used as weapons against Native Americans. The U.S. Army set one historically large blaze in 1865 that consumed much of Nebraska and the Great Plains, as the federal government attempted to “drive Indians out of the Platte Valley.” Eudora Stone’s family members would likely have told her stories about this fire, which would have occurred around the time she was born.

In “Forces of Nature,” the Kansas Historical Society emphasizes how prairie fires are a natural part of the area’s ecosystem, but white settlers moving into the region did not understand fires as the Native Americans did: “American Indians had burned off sections of prairie for centuries.  They realized that fire promoted the growth of new grass attractive to buffalo. But many farmers new to the Plains thought trees, not grasses, were a sign of the land’s richness.  They believed prairie fires had created the Great American Desert by preventing trees from growing.  Burning the prairie was considered uncivilized, and it threatened the houses, barns, and livestock settlers had worked so hard to acquire.”

Today, we consider controlled burns as essential to ecosystem health.

Resources for Further Study
Pedagogy

A number of midwestern teachers have developed lesson plans that teach children about prairie fires’ history and current significance; examples appear below.

  • Laurel Smith and Dawn Hagan, “Fires on the Prairie” aims at younger children.
  • “Prairie Fire,” North Dakota Studies, State Historical Society of North Dakota
Contemporary Connections

Writing for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in “Prairie Fires on the Southern Plains,” Deke Arndt writes about the fires that devastated large sections of the southern plains in 2016.

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