As the editor's headnote to the poem informs you, "The Dying Indian" is a dramatic monologue delivered by a native American who is...dying. What is he saying in this poem? Pick two lines (give or take) and explain what they are conveying. Alternatively, isolate two lines (give or take) that puzzle you, and identify your confusion here.
Deadline: Monday (11/16), start of scheduled class time (11am).
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The entire poem is a little frustrating to wrap your head around first of all, as , if I am reading this right, it is written by an English man frustrated by the Spanish involvement in the America's who is portraying his thoughts through a bitter and dying Incan Indian. But this Indian seems particularly ignorant or rash in his accusations of the people, or "Christians" invading his land. For instance, a piece of the poem I found interesting even though I could not quite decipher is when the Indian is telling his son to kill his mother if she is on the verge of death. He says, "And when disease/Preys on her languid limbs, then kindly stab her/With thine own hands, not suffer her to linger,/Like christian cowards, in a life of pain" (Lines 22-25). The Indian or poet, whoever this point of view is best representing, is not comparing equal concepts (saying that all Christians live an entire life of pain mentally in comparison to his wife lingering a short amount of time in a physically painful death), throwing random jabs at the Christians he seems extremely ignorant of. I understand that the native may be bitter towards the Spanish trying to take over his land, but it is not written from an actual native's perspective and does not seem to be in any way persuasive or insightful.
"Tell her I ne'er have worship'd
With those that eat their God." Is a line that represents the complete hypocrisy of this poem. Joseph Warton is a white dude writing from the persona of a "dying Indian." First of all, these lines represent the stereotypes propagated in the west after the discovery of the "new world." The Native Americans were vile and barbaric and wore teeth as crowns... or at least that's what the West saw from them. Moreover, this line emphasizes the stereotypes that white men feel would be placed upon them by other cultures. Warton, as a white man, saying Christians are heathens who "eat their God" illustrates a self recognition of how the world might see white culture.
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