1825

By The Stranger. [Hiram Haines.] "The Virginiad." Mountain Buds and Blossoms, Wove in a Rustic Garland. Petersburg, 1825. 30-33. Haines, poet and newspaper editor, hosted the honeymoon of Poe and Virginia Clemm at his house. "Virginia hail! thou loveliest land on Earth" begins this hymn of praise to the land, the people, and the principles of Virginia by an author who declares, "Born and reared in the Old Dominion, I wish never to go permanently beyond its boundaries." Pocahontas, not Smith, stands with Patrick Henry, Jefferson, Washington, Madison, Monroe -- "Virginia's Sons of lustrous Fame" -- in this regional celebration. Like in Davis, "him, for whom her chaste affections burned, / Ne'er from his breast, love's echoing notes returned." But there is no Rolfe to assuage Pocahontas's passion this time. Smith, "cruel man," leaves his "guardian angel" weeping over his "imagined grave."
[poetry]
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