(Note: — Pocahontas is buried at Gravesend,
England.)"Pocahontas' body, lovely as a poplar, sweet as a red haw in November or a pawpaw in May — did she wonder? does she remember — in the dust — in the cool tombs?"
RL
RG.
Powhatan was conqueror,
Powhatan was emperor.
He was akin to wolf and bee,
Brother of the hickory tree.
Son of the red lightning
And the lightning-shivered oak.
His panther-grace bloomed in the
Who laughed among the winds and
In excellence of savage pride,
Wooing the forest, open-eyed,
In the springtime,
In Virginia,
Our Mother,
Pocahontas.
Her skin was rosy copper-red.
And high she held her beauteous head.
Her step was like a rustling leaf:
Her heart a nest, untouched of grief.
She dreamed of sons like Powhatan,
And through her blood the lightning ran.
Love-cries with the birds she sung,
In the grape-vine swung.
The Forest, arching low and
Gloried in its Indian bride.
Rolfe, that dim
Had not come a courtier.
John Rolfe is not our ancestor.
We rise from out the soul of
Held in native wonderland,
While the sun's rays kissed her hand,
In the springtime,
In Virginia,
Our Mother,
Pocahontas.
She heard the forest talking,
Across the sea came walking,
And traced the paths of Daniel Boone,
Then westward chased the painted moon.
She passed with wild young
On to Kansas wheat,
On to the miners' west,
The echoing cañons' guest,
Then the Pacific sand,
Waking,
Thrilling,
The midnight land….
On Adams street and Jefferson —Flames coming up from the ground!
On Jackson street and Washington —Flames coming up from the ground!
And why, until the dawning
Are flames coming up from the ground?
Because, through drowsy Springfield
This red-skin queen, with feathered head,
With winds and stars, that pay her
And leaping beasts, that make her sport;
Because, gray Europe's rags
She tramples in the dust;
Because we are her fields of corn;
Because our fires are all
From her bosom's deathless embers,
As she
The
And Virginia,
Our Mother,
Pocahontas.
We here renounce our Saxon blood.
Tomorrow's hopes, an April
Come roaring in.
The newest
Is born of her resilient grace.
We here renounce our Teuton pride:
Our Norse and Slavic boasts have died:
Italian dreams are swept away,
And Celtic feuds are lost today….
She sings of lilacs, maples, wheat,
Her own soil sings beneath her feet,
Of
And Virginia,
Our Mother,
Pocahontas.
