1845

Hale, Mrs. Sarah Josepha. "The Empire of Woman." [New York] Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book 31 (July 1845): 12. (Three Hours; or, The Vigil of Love: and Other Poems. Philadelphia, 1848. 86-90.) Hale was a prolific writer and long-time editor of Godey's, which, as the most popular woman's magazine of its era, wielded enormous influence, focusing mainly on the domestic role of women. In this poem "the outward World" is given to "Man's dominion," and Hale, in separate stanzas, sketches women's role as daughter, sister, wife, and mother. Pocahontas and Powhatan embody the father/daughter relationship, showing what influence in the outside world a female can have: "The iron cares that load and press men down / A father can, like school-boy tasks, lay by, / When gazing in his Daughter’s loving eye, / Her soft arm like a spell around him thrown; / The passions that, like Upas’ leaves, have grown / Most deadly in dark places, which defy / Earth, heaven and human will, even these were shown / All powerless to resist the pleading cry / Which pierced a savage but a father’s ear, / And shook a soul where pity’s pulse seemed dead; / When Pocahontas, heeding not the fear / That daunted boldest warriors, laid her head / Beside the doomed! Now with our country’s fame, / Sweet forest Daughter, we blent thy name."
[poetry; gender]
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