Classic Poem

Your eyes are as black as twin pools at night,
Little papoose;
And down in their depths I can see Love's light,
Little papoose;
Let the winter wind round the teepee whine:
My song shall you hear—not the creak of the pine,
Little papoose of mine!

I love you—how much I cannot tell,
Little papoose;
I hope you shall love me but half as well,
Little papoose;
Few are our people and weak have they grown:
We must live, we must love, we must fight alone,
Little papoose, my own!

In the days when the buffalo roamed the plain,
Little papoose,
This heart of mine would have known no pain,
Little papoose;
But—woe to the red when the white comes nigh!—
An alien dwells 'neath our Western sky—
Little papoose, we die!