The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 4 letter word EPIC POEM
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
E
P
I
C
P
O
E
M
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "The Song of Hiawatha, say" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case the song of hiawatha, say = epic poem.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.