Cycle of The West

Cycle Of The West

A Cycle of the West is a collection of five epic poems (called "Songs") written and published over a nearly thirty-year span by John G. Neihardt. As one extended work of literature, the Cycle treats historical topics from the American settlement of the Great Plains and the displacement of the Native American cultures there.

Each poem is written as enjambed heroic couplets in several chapters. As Neihardt gained experience with the form, he began to close chapters, and often verse paragraphs, in the middle of a line, with the first line of the next chapter completing both the suspended line and rhyme. The effect is to pull the speaker forward until the only completely resolved couplet is the one at the end of the Song.

By internal chronological order, the five songs are (with the date of first publication):

  • The Song of Three Friends (1919)
  • The Song of Hugh Glass (1915)
  • The Song of Jed Smith (1941)
  • The Song of the Indian Wars (1925)
  • The Song of the Messiah (1935)

Read more about Cycle Of The West:  The Song of Three Friends, The Song of Hugh Glass

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