Gergő Sipka

Professor Norbert Gyuris

American Literature and Culture II.
30 October 2020

The Indian Burying Ground

PHILIP FRENEAU

Reading this poem was easy. Understanding what the poet wanted to say was not that

easy. I had to read it several times to grasp a few things first. We learnt much about the native

Americans, Indians, and their culture. Although, I had to revise the knowledge I gained in

some of my American culture classes. After several minutes of thinking I came to these

conclusions:

Freneau is at an Indian cemetery, or, as the title says, a burying ground. Maybe he was

sitting or standing there, staring at the gravestones, when he started to think about the burial

customs of Indians. Once, I was in a brick castle, in Gyula, where we had an astounding tour

leader. He mentioned that people slept in tiny, short beds, so that they cannot lie down

completely, since Europeans thought, that only dead people would lie down. So, the position

of sitting, or half-sitting (somewhere between sitting and laying) symbolized life. Only living

people would take up that position. Similarly, Indians thought, that laying down means

something negative, that you are dead. However, they thought that they live on the afterlife.

Therefore, they buried their dead in a sitting posture. At least, I think the first two stanzas

mean to carry this message. Similarly, the next 7 stanzas try to reinforce these views. In the

afterlife, dead people are with „his bow, for action ready bent”, they have their own tools,

etc.
 In the stanzas discussed above, the poet writes down how the Indians buried their

people. Now, in the last stanza he responses, reflects on these customs, rituals. The idea of the

afterlife might not have been a concept that Freneau accepted, since he writes:

„And Reason's self shall bow the knee

To shadows and delusions here.”

Even though, it was not a European custom to bury the dead with their tools, artifacts,

he still wrote a poem about the Indians and their rituals, way of burying. He may have done

that to pay his respects, maybe he felt sorrow, woe, etc. Nevertheless, it is a good thing no to

let the native Americans sink into oblivion.