1840

Morris, George P. "The Chieftain's Daughter." [New York] Godey's Lady's Book, and Ladies' American Magazine 21 (November 1840): 202. Morris was a highly successful journalist and editor (co-founder of the New York Mirror) and critic and writer ("Woodman, Spare That Tree"). This is perhaps the first appearance of the poem that just might be the most reprinted poem about Pocahontas in the 19th century. Three stanzas focusing on the crucial moment: "Above his head in air, / The savage war-club swung; / The frantic girl, in wild despair, / Her arms about him flung. / Then shook the warriors of the shade, / Like leaves on aspen-limb, / Subdued by that heroic maid / Who breathed a prayer for him." The poem is introduced by a prose description of the rescue from an unidentified work called Sketches of Virginia.
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