"In vain I tried to tell you" essays in Native American ethnopoetics - Hymes, Dell H. (Philadelphia, PA University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981)
Some North Pacific Coast poems: a problem in anthropological philology -- How to talk like a bear in Takelma -- Breakthrough into performance -- Louis Simpson's "The deserted boy" -- Verse analysis of a Wasco text: Hiram Smith's "At'unaqa" -- Breakthrough into performance revisited -- Myth and tale titles of the Lower Chinook -- The "wife" who "goes out" like a man: reinterpretation of a Clackamas Chinook myth --Discovering oral performance and measured verse in American Indian narrative -- Reading Clackamas texts.
Includes indexes.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 386-398)and indexes.
Keywords: Indians of North America -- Northwest, Pacific -- Poetry -- History and criticism; Indians of North America -- Northwest, Pacific -- Folklore