1814

"The Beauties of York. Inscribed to Thomas S. Pleasants." [Philadelphia] Port-Folio 3rd series, 3.6 (June 1814): 594-97. The headnote by the editor (presumably Charles Caldwell) seeks to canonize Pocahontas: "But our strongest motive for printing [the poem] is, the elegant tribute it pays to the amiable, the heroic, the neglected Pocahontas -- a princess who, in other countries, if not actually deified, would have been worshipped, at least, as a tutelary saint; but who, in this, where virtue, talents, and worth constitute the only legitimate title to distinction, has been suffered to be almost lost to fame. . . . Under Providence, she was more instrumental than any other being in the original colonization of these United States. The poet, the painter, the sculptor, and the statuary should vie with each other in doing justice to her achievements and in perpetuating her renown." The poem itself continues the theme of her unrequited love for Smith started by Davis: love for Smith "usurped the empire of her soul" but turned "to torment, to despair," and she was "left at last to nurse consuming cares, / And weep thy woes in unavailing tears."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]