Poem No. 17 - The Delight Song

The Delight Song

Who Was N. Scott Momaday?

His full name is Navarre Scott Momaday who was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, He used to spend earlier years at his grandparents' home where his father was born and raised. When he was just one year old, his parents moved to Arizona. By profession, Scott's father was a painter. His mother became an author of children's books which were like by the people. Both his parents worked as teachers on Indian reservations when Scott was growing up, and the boy was exposed not only to the Kiowa traditions of his father's family but to the Navajo, Apache and Pueblo Indian cultures of the Southwest. Momaday early developed an interest in literature, especially poetry. When he did his graduation from the University of New Mexico, and a year of teaching on the Apache reservation at Jicarilla, he won a poetry fellowship to the creative writing program at Stanford University. Under the guidance of poet and critic Yvor Winters, Momaday earned a doctorate in English literature in 1963, and accepted a teaching post at the University of California at Santa Barbara. As his doctoral dissertation, he edited and annotated the Complete works of the 19th century American poet Frederick Goddard Tuckerman. It was published by Oxford University Press in 1965.

The Delight Song (Video)
 

I am a feather on the bright sky

I am the blue horse that runs in the plain

I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water

I am the shadow that follows a child

I am the evening light, the lustre of meadows

I am an eagle playing with the wind

I am a cluster of bright beads

I am the farthest star

I am the cold of the dawn

I am the roaring of the rain

I am the glitter on the crust of the snow

I am the long track of the moon in a lake

I am a flame of four colors

I am a deer standing away in the dusk

I am a field of sumac and pomme blanche

I am an angle of geese in the winter sky

I am the hunger of a young wolf

I am the whole dream of these things

You see, I am alive, I am alive

I stand in good relation to the Gods

I stand in good relation to the earth

I stand in good relation to everything that is beautiful...

You see, I am alive, I am alive

Navarre Scott Momaday

Summary of the Poem "The Delight Song"

It is a poem in which we find that the poet feels alive, active and smart. He enjoys the brightness of the sky, running on the plain ground, sight of the fish swimming in the water and so on. He takes great delight in looking at the activities of the birds, changes in during the day and night, and the different natural phenomena like rainfall and snowfall. He feels that he is in happy relationship with all that is on earth such as the shadow of a child, the cold of dawn, the glitter of snow and flame of fire. He is in harmony with everything. 

Paraphrase of Stanza No. 1

I am a feather on the bright sky

I am the blue horse that runs in the plain

I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water

I am the shadow that follows a child

I am like as light as a feather of a bird flying in the sunny sky. I am like the horse free of worries running on the plain ground. I am as active as a fish. I am the shadow of a child which has no worries. He takes part in the life and activities of these phenomena.