Lyssanda Designs

Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)  1861 – 1913

One of the first women writers to define Canadian literature in our founding years, the iconic  Pauline Johnson also made a huge contribution to First Nations oral and written history.  Her  life is absolutely fascinating given her unique perspective as the daughter of a Haudenosaunee (Mohawk) Chief and an English mother, a mix that informed her literary output and theatrical performances with both the prevailing Victorian sensibility and a heightened reverence for the subtleties of the natural world.

I recently discovered the poem Easter, written by Pauline Johnson on April 1, 1888, and was thrilled with the inherent imagery of strong feminine forces at work in the cycles of nature, guiding the transformation of early Spring into the warmer days of April.  Whether from the influence of the romantic prose of the Victorian era or as a genuine connection to the natural world as being conscious and alive, Johnson succeeds in describing the attributes of each season as if they are elementals or animated spirits.  Using sweet, gentle, yet passionate phrasing, Johnson expresses the yearning of the heart while clearly evoking the mystery, timelessness and dreamlike qualities of wild nature.  Using aspects of what we would today call anthropomorphization, discovering the beauty of nature and expressing this adoration with the human voice was the very purpose of poetry for Pauline Johnson. 

As we engage in the current Mother Earth recovery project and a return to nature-focused values, we can learn much from the animistic dedication, respect and enjoyment of the natural world that Pauline experienced in her early Industrial Revolution, pre-technological world.     As I was able to recognize the strong feminine energies in Pauline’s poem Easter, I must conclude that she was cognizant of the power of the Divine Feminine in the spiraling aspects and cycles of all life. Having always felt a strong soul-sister connection to her that transcends time and space, I took the liberty of changing two words that appear in the poem; “Lent” to “Imbolc” and the word “Easter” to “Ostara”.  These simple alterations miraculously birth the poem anew as an expression of Goddess Spirituality and the Rites of Spring.  I humbly offer this revisitation with respect and the tenderness of hope, that perhaps Pauline would have approved.

EASTER  

Pauline Johnson ~ April 1, 1888

Imbolc gathers up her cloak of sombre shading
        In her reluctant hands.
Her beauty heightens, fairest in its fading,
        As pensively she stands
Awaiting Ostara’s benediction falling,
        Like silver stars at night,
Before she can obey the summons calling
        Her to her upward flight,
Awaiting Ostara’s wings that she must borrow
    Ere she can hope to fly –
Those glorious wings that we shall see to-morrow
        Against the far, blue sky.
Has not the purple of her vesture’s lining
        Brought calm and rest to all?
Has her dark robe had naught of golden shining
        Been naught but pleasure’s pall?
Who knows? Perhaps when to the world returning
        In youth’s light joyousness,
We’ll wear some rarer jewels we found burning
        In Imbolc’s black-bordered dress.
So hand in hand with fitful March she lingers
        To beg the crowning grace
Of lifting with her pure and holy fingers
        The veil from April’s face.
Sweet, rosy April – laughing, sighing, waiting
        Until the gateway swings,
And she and Imbolc can kiss between the grating
    Of Ostara’s tissue wings.
Too brief the bliss – the parting comes with sorrow.
    Good-bye dear Imbolc, good-bye!
We’ll watch your fading wings outlined to-morrow
        Against the far blue sky.