Questions

1. The poet assumes the voice of Pocahontas and addresses her husband: “oh beloved perfidious one” (l. 2). Why would she use such an oxymoronic phrase at the beginning of the poem? What is its effect? How do that phrase and the rhetorical question that follows contribute to her tone?

   Question

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   Questions: - The poet assumes the voice of Pocahontas and addresses her husband: “oh beloved perfidious one” (l. 2). Why would she use such an oxymoronic phrase at the beginning of the poem? What is its effect? How do that phrase and the rhetorical question that follows contribute to her tone?
2. How effectively does Paula Gunn Allen develop the “irony” she mentions in line 19? How does the irony in lines 33–34 (“learning the ways of grace only / by your firm guidance”) contribute to the poem?

   Question

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   Questions: - How effectively does Paula Gunn Allen develop the “irony” she mentions in line 19? How does the irony in lines 33–34 (“learning the ways of grace only / by your firm guidance”) contribute to the poem?
3. How does Allen’s juxtaposition of Pocahontas as protector with Rolfe’s characterization of her as “a simple wanton, a savage maid, / dusky daughter of heathen sires” (ll. 29–30) serve to undermine stereotypes regarding Native Americans?

   Question

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   Questions: - How does Allen’s juxtaposition of Pocahontas as protector with Rolfe’s characterization of her as “a simple wanton, a savage maid, / dusky daughter of heathen sires” (ll. 29–30) serve to undermine stereotypes regarding Native Americans?
4. In line 31, Allen refers to the famous passage from William Strachey’s 1615 book, History of Travaile into Virginia Britannica (one of the very few sources from which we draw information about Pocahontas): “Pocahuntas, a well-featured but wanton young girle…of the age of eleven or twelve years, get the boyes forth into the market place, and make them wheele, falling on their hands, turning their heels upwards, whom she would followe, and wheele so herself, naked as she was, all the fort over.” Although Strachey probably never actually saw Pocahontas himself, his description is widely accepted as accurate. How does Allen interpret his account in this poem?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Questions: - In line 31, Allen refers to the famous passage from William Strachey’s 1615 book, History of Travaile into Virginia Britannica (one of the very few sources from which we draw information about Pocahontas): “Pocahuntas, a well-featured but wanton young girle…of the age of eleven or twelve years, get the boyes forth into the market place, and make them wheele, falling on their hands, turning their heels upwards, whom she would followe, and wheele so herself, naked as she was, all the fort over.” Although Strachey probably never actually saw Pocahontas himself, his description is widely accepted as accurate. How does Allen interpret his account in this poem?
5. What is the argument that Allen advances in the poem? What is her view of Pocahontas?

   Question

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   Questions: - What is the argument that Allen advances in the poem? What is her view of Pocahontas?