142 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



While it is true that any keen observer of a fire might remember 

 the appearance of a flame in a hearth, yet memory may have 

 been at least stimulated by Bartram's description of his resting 

 on a wooded bank of the " peaceful Alatamaha," his " barque 

 securely moored," while his " fire burnt low; the blue smoke 

 scarce rising above the . . . embers . . ." (pp. 50-51). 



Later, Coleridge's vision of his boy's destiny has the authen- 

 tic coloring of Bartram: 



But thou, my babe! shalt wander like a breeze 



By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags 



Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds, 



Which image in their bulk both lake and shores 



And mountain crags: so shalt thou see and hear 



The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible 



Of that eternal language, which God 



Utters, who from eternity doth teach 



Himself in all, and all things in himself. 



Great universal Teacher! ... (54-63) 



The pantisocracy dream is evidentally not yet dead, nor the 

 '" wilderness plot " out of Bartram. Here the landscape and the 

 sentiment of Bartram meet once more in Coleridge's mind. For 

 to Bartram, too, observing the " lovely shapes " of lakes, shores, 

 crags, mountains, clouds, nature " is the work of God omnipo- 

 tent " (p. xxiv) ; it is the expression of the " power, majesty, 

 and perfection of the great Almighty Creator " (p. 73) ; of the 

 " universal sovereign " (p. 100). 



A more obvious use of Bartram's Altamaha appears in 

 " Lewti." Here Coleridge locates his lover by "' Tamaha's 

 stream." But what this poem owes to Bartram has been capit- 

 ally summarized by Professor Lowes in a compact footnote para- 

 graph. " The poem," says Professor Lowes, " is a night-piece 

 on the ' Tamaha ' ; there are rocks by the river {Poems, II, 1049- 

 51; tf. I, 253) ; there is the ' radiant edge ' of the moon, peep- 

 ing below a black-arched cloud (II, 1050) , and the shadow of 

 a star (I, 253), and there are waves breaking against a curved 

 and distant shore (I, 253, n.; II, 1050)." Professor Lowes then 

 draws parallels from Bartram's night-piece on the Alatamaha 

 (p. 51) ; on the sides of the river are rocky cliffs (p. 49) and 

 " high shores " (p. 50) , which compare with Coleridge's "' High 



