"A Cry from an Indian Wife"
The poem is told from the perspective of an Indian woman addressing her husband. The wife addresses her husband in a loving way. Being afraid she will never see him again. She gives him a knife, but she knows well the husband will most likely not need it since there is nothing left to hunt.
"The plains are bare’’ and so now, instead of hunting for animals, the Indians hunt for the white men who seek to stop them from living their life in a traditional way. The narrator does not agree with this even though she agrees that their lands have been stolen. She calls the soldiers innocent because that have been sent by a ruthless government that does not care if their soldiers die or if the Indians die.
Despite this, the wife still can’t forget the lands that the whites occupy were once only theirs and urge the white men to think how they would feel is someone came from the outside, stole their lands and kill their people.
The narrator mentions how no one wanted to help them and how the ones who suffered the most were the women because they were the ones who lost husbands and sons. Despite this, they were also the ones who sent their loved ones to war, knowing they have to make sacrifices for their kind and their pain is only made easier by the knowledge that they are not the only ones who lost people they loved.
The poem ends with the narrator urging the men once more to go to war, to save their ways and to fight and take back what was stolen from them.
"Joe"
The poem begins with the narrator describing the scenery and how it changed over the years. The land is brown and there are fences everywhere. Rail lines look like scars in the ground, and it cuts through forests, destroying them. The fields have been affected by well and the result was that they were enclose.
The poem then goes to present Joe, a nine-year-old boy coming from a family of settlers. Joe is basking in the sun and the narrator describes his appearance, highlighting how the sun affected his skin. Joe is most likely from Ireland because of his ‘’Irish eyes of blue’’ and he is tired because he was put to husk Indian corn all day.
Joe returns home after working all day and from the way he is described it is transmitted the idea that he has no care in the world. Joe’s home is near the woods, the same woods the narrator predicts will be destroyed by the new settlers.
"Marshlands"
The poem "Marshlands’’ is different from the other poems presented because it does not focus on the existing divergences between the Indians and the whites but rather presents a natural environment, untouched by the human hands. The marshlands are presented here as a perfect place for animals to live because humans tend to stay away from those places. Thus, silence characterizes the marshlands and makes them appear as if they are something from another world, a place where no conflict exists.
"The Corn Husker"
The major character in the poem ‘’The Corn Husker’’ is once more an Indian person, this time an old Indian woman. The woman is described as being frail and week, probably towards the end of the life. The woman spends her time gathering corn and husking them. Despite this, the woman has hunger in her face and her shoulders are hunched over, showing the hard times she had to endure in her life.
The woman carried corn and then let the husks fall to the ground. The poem ends with the narrator comparing the corn husks with the Indian people who remain in the fields.
