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Windigo. By Louise Erdrich. For Angela. The Windigo is a flesh-eating, wintry demon with a man buried deep inside of it. In some Chippewa stories, a young girl vanquishes this monster by forcing boiling lard down its throat, thereby releasing the human at the core of ice. You knew I was coming for you, little one,
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By Louise Erdrich. Share. He (my captor) gave me a bisquit,...
- Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich was born in Little Falls, Minnesota in 1954....
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- Summary
- Structure
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- Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
‘Windigo’by Louise Erdrich is a dark and mysterious poem the describes the abduction of a child by a menacing man/dog creature, the windigo. The poem takes the reader through a series of images that describe the landscape and the windigo in dark and foreboding terms. The scene is a terrifying one. It is made even more so by the windigo’s determinat...
‘Windigo’ by Louise Erdrich is a five stanza poem that is separated into stanzas of either four or five lines. These are known as quatrains and quintains. Erdrich did not choose to structure this piece with aspecific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. It is written in free verse. Despite the fact that there is no rhyme scheme or meter at play in ‘Wi...
Erdrich makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘Windigo’. These include but are not limited to alliteration, enjambment, and imagery. The last of these is the most important in this particular poem. Imagery refers to the elements of a poem that engage a reader’s senses. Traditionally, the word “image” is related to visual sights, things that a r...
Stanza One
In the first stanza of ‘Windigo’ the speaker, a windigo, begins by addressing “you”. The poem is written with a specific listener in mind. This person is never named although they are referred to as “little one” and “child” throughout. A reader can assume that the windigo is planning an attack, and then attacking, a young child. The child knows that the windigo is coming for him, at least that’s what the windigo thinks. This is a very ominous line that alludes to the danger and possible death...
Stanza Two
The second stanza of ‘Windigo’is also five lines long. The first describes the “dry brush” that would’ve covered the forest floor. In it, the dog is creeping. Its hackles merge with the plant life and a “thin,” humorless laugh rises up from them. While all this darkness is going on outside, the other of the young child who is about to be taken is cooking inside. She is unaware of what’s going on. There is an interesting juxtapositionat play here. First, that of the dark outside world and what...
Stanza Three
In the third stanza of ‘Windigo’ Erdrich makes use of several good examples of imagery. She describes the sumac and the copper burning in the raw wood. These images are juxtaposedagainst one another and the windigo’s pale fur. The creature takes the child and drags him into the woods. He has completed what he came there to do. The word “melting” relates back to the cold internal nature of the beast as referenced by Erdrich in the epigraph.
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- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
By Louise Erdrich. The Windigo is a flesh-eating, wintry demon with a man buried deep inside of it. In some Chippewa stories, a young girl vanquishes this monster by forcing boiling lard down its throat, thereby releasing the human at the core of ice. when the kettle jumped into the fire.
In A Nutshell. Native American oral storytelling tradition? Reclamation of voice by a systematically silenced subset of Americans? 10-foot tall demonic wintry cannibal half-beasts? Yep, you will find all of this and more in Louise Erdrich 's poem, " Windigo," a modern literary retelling of a traditional Chippewa Indian story.
Technical analysis of Windigo literary devices and the technique of Louise Erdrich.
The "you" in the poem, this "little one," seems to know that the Windigo is approaching. And the dog seems to know what's up as well. Where does this intuition come from? It's not clear just yet. This opening stanza brims with rich imagery. Erdrich creating a foreboding, shadowy atmosphere.
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Oct 13, 2022 · Here's a poem about a creature from Chippewa folkloreRead it: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43086/windigoTimestamps0:00 Intro3:07 Poem4:43 AnalysisI...
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- Around the Weird
