1855

Bartley, James Avis. "Pocahontas." Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems. Richmond, 1855. 7-15. Pocahontas, Bartley says in his preface, "enchanted" him: "How often the Guardian Angel of the Father of Virginia in surpassing loveliness rose before my imagining eyes! Like the spirit of a dream, she glided through the foliage, verdant and shadowy." In his poem, Pocahontas saves Smith for love ("On Love's swift wings, this Indian virgin flew, / To snatch from hateful death the lovely chief, / Love drew her tears, like showers of pearly dew"), but Smith is interested only in fame ("He whom she loved to all these charms was cold, / Though well he saw her bosom's gentle fire, / Stern is the soul that worships fame or gold"), but she marries Rolfe and, dying in England without mention of Smith, she finds a better home in heaven ("Let not a sound of thoughtlessness molest / The melancholy spot of her eternal rest!"). The patriot Virginian will ever praise and ever mourn Pocahontas.
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