BARTRAM'S INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE 153 



the same as those o£ Ruth "; " but the "' hero " of the poem is 

 Bartram's young half-breed. 



The imagery in the youth's tales frequently follows Bartram 

 almost word for word. In stanza ix the youth tells of girls 



Who quit their fold with dance and shout, 



Their pleasant Indian town, 



To gather strawberries all day long; 



Returning with a choral song 



When daylight is gone down. 



Bartram records that, " towards evening, a company of Indian 

 girls, inhabitants of a village in the hills at a small distance, 

 called, having baskets of strawberries." ^^ Eighteen pages later 

 he describes " a most enchanting view, a vast expanse of green 

 meadows and strawberry fields " where " companies of young, 

 innocent Cherokee^® virgins, some busily gathering the rich 

 fragrant fruit, others having already filled their baskets, lay 

 reclined under the shade of floriferous and fragrant native 

 bowers of Magnolia . . . disclosing their beauties to the flutter- 

 ing breeze . . . whilst other parties . . . were yet collecting straw- 

 berries or wantonly chasing their companions, tantalizing them, 

 staining their lips and cheeks with the rich fruit " (pp. 356-57) . 

 Nor is " the choral song " hard to find in Bartram. Exactly two 

 paragraphs before his description of the young mustee appears 

 a description of Indian dances, at which " the girls clap hands, 

 and raise their shrill sweet voices, . . . and perform an inter- 

 lude or chorus separately " (pp. 505-506). 

 The youth continues to speak 



of plants that hourly change 

 Their blossoms, through a boundless range 

 Of intermingling hues; 

 With budding, fading, faded flowers 

 They stand the wonder of the bowers 

 From morn to evening dews (stanza x) . 



^* Descriptive Sketches, II, 305, ed. 1854. Quoted by Dowden in Poems by 

 William Wordsworth, p. 379. 



^^ P. 349. This passage in Bartram has evidently thus far escaped the vigilance 

 of commentators. 



^° It will be recalled that Wordsworth's youth brought his " splendid feathers " 

 from the " Cherokees " (stanza iv). 



