I have certain quarrels on minor points [in The Song of the Indian Wars]: the use of 'twas, 'twere, alas, aye, etc., for which this poet has been sorrowfully reproached before; the lack of feminine endings which, rhymed, would have given variety and animation; the very rare use of the trochee for the iamb in search for musical relief and emphasis; the lack of an occasional illegal dactylic foot for suppleness; the use of the French word coup; the heading of the first part, The Sowing of the Dragon. Rhyme indubitably holds back the story, the machinery of it is evident in lines not important in themselves completing the couplets. If only the author had fallen by sectional moments into blank verse he would have gained brevity, lost nothing of accuracy or music; and when at the Council with the white men, Red Cloud, Spotted Tail and Man-Afraid...