158 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



The wind, the tempest roaring high, 



The tumult of a tropic sky, 



Might well be dangerous food 



For him, a Youth to whom was given 



So much of earth — so much of heaven, 



And such impetous blood. 

 Whatever in those climes he found 

 Irregular in sight or sound 

 Did to his mind impart 

 A kindred impulse, seemed allied 

 To his own powers, and justified 

 The workings of his heart. 



Nor less, to feed voluptuous thought, 

 The beauteous forms of nature wrought. 

 Fair trees and gorgeous flowers; 

 The breezes their own languor lent; 

 The stars had feelings, which they sent 

 Into those favored bowers. 



Professor Cooper goes so far as to " fanq^ that there is an im- 

 plied censure of Bartram himself in some of the youth's attri- 

 butes, since for all his scientific interests, this naturalist shows 

 an undeniable predilection for 



Whatever in those climes he found 

 Irregular in sight or sound." 



Yet the censure could not have been a severe one, for in the 

 next stanza Wordsworth admits that in the youth's 



worst pursuit I ween 

 That sometimes there did intervene 

 Pure hopes of high intent: 

 For passions linked to forms so fair 

 And stately, needs must have their share 

 Of noble sentiment (stanza xxiv). 



It has been said that Wordsworth's debt to Bartram is not 

 confined exclusively to scenery and diction. There are other 

 and more subtle influences which he owes to the Travels. Even 

 when the American youth apparently speaks of England, 



" Before me shone a glorious world — 

 Fresh as a banner bright, unfurled 

 To music suddenly: 



