Lydia Sigourney | Eminent Women

Lydia Sigourney

Lydia Sigourney was a popular American poet during the early and mid 19th century. She was commonly known as the “Sweet Singer of Hartford” and “the American Hemans.” Her writings reflected a grace and quiet reflection upon nature.

Throughout her life, Sigourney took an active interest in social and educational issues. Sigourney felt obligated to use her position to help oppressed members of society. In her autobiography she wrote with the hope of “being an instrument of good.”

She was an early advocate of social reform in slavery and emigration. One of her most successful poems, titled “Indian Names,” asks ‘How can the red men be forgotten, while so many of our states and territories, bays, lakes, and rivers, are indelibly stamped by names of their giving?’

Ye say they all have passed away,

   That noble race and brave,

That their light canoes have vanished

   From off the crested wave;

That ’mid the forests where they roamed

   There rings no hunter shout,

But their name is on your waters,

   Ye may not wash it out.

’Tis where Ontario’s billow

   Like Ocean’s surge is curled,

Where strong Niagara’s thunders wake

   The echo of the world.

Where red Missouri bringeth

   Rich tribute from the west,

And Rappahannock sweetly sleeps

   On green Virginia’s breast.

Old Massachusetts wears it,

   Within her lordly crown,

And broad Ohio bears it,

   Amid his young renown;

Connecticut hath wreathed it

   Where her quiet foliage waves,

And bold Kentucky breathed it hoarse

   Through all her ancient caves.

Ye call these red-browned brethren

   The insects of an hour,

Crushed like the noteless worm amid

   The regions of their power;

Ye drive them from their father’s lands,

   Ye break of faith the seal,

But can ye from the court of Heaven   

   Exclude their last appeal?

Ye see their unresisting tribes,

   With toilsome step and slow,

On through the trackless desert pass

   A caravan of woe;

Think ye the Eternal’s ear is deaf?

   His sleepless vision dim?

Think ye the soul’s blood may not cry

   From that far land to him?

Lydia Sigourney was listed among the eminent women in the records of the St. George Temple. To learn more about the painting by Michael Bedard in this video please click here.