LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,078)
  • Text Authors (19,391)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,113)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Philip Morin Freneau (1752 - 1832)

The Death‑Song of a Cherokee Indian
Language: English 
The sun sets in night, and the stars shun the day,
But glory remains when their lights fade away.
Begin, ye tormentors: your threats are in vain,
For the son of Alknomock can never complain.

Remember the woods, where in ambush he lay,
And the scalps which he bore from your nation away!
Why do ye delay? ... 'till I shrink from my pain?
Know the son of Alknomock can never complain.

Remember the arrows he shot from his bow;
Remember your chiefs by his hatchet laid low.
The flame rises high, you exult in my pain,
But the son of Alknomock will never complain.

I go to the land where my father is gone:
His ghost shall rejoice in the fame of his son.
Death comes like a friend, he relieves me from pain,
And thy son, Oh Alknomock, has scorn'd to complain.

Confirmed with Cyclopædia of American Literature, Evert A. Duyckinck and George L. Duyckinck, New York: Charles Scribner, 1856, page 341f.


Text Authorship:

  • by Philip Morin Freneau (1752 - 1832), "The Death-Song of a Cherokee Indian" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

    [ None yet in the database ]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in English, adapted by Anne Hunter (1742 - 1821) [an adaptation] ; composed by Anne Hunter.
      • Go to the text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2023-07-30
Line count: 16
Word count: 143

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris