BARTRAM'S INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE l6l 



Wordsworth had read many travel books picturing unpopulated 

 American regions, and it is not wise to be definite as to which 

 was the source of a particular passage in such an ambitious 

 poem as The Excursion. It is more certain that frequently they 

 all united in his mind to form a composite impression of 

 America, so that it is not at all strange to find the Mississippi 

 and the St. Lawrence (" that northern stream That spreads into 

 successive seas ") merged in the same passage. However, that 

 a good deal of Bartram has crept into these lines is a not unrea- 

 sonable hypothesis. Bartram's road to the Mississippi is " under 

 the shadow of a grand forest " (p. 427) . He stands on the 

 banks of the river " fascinated " by its " magnifiscence," survey- 

 ing " the flood, the trees, high forests," and all " objects," 

 which, he tells us, " all unite ... in exhibiting a prospect of 

 the grand sublime " (pp. 427-28) . It is clear that Bartram saw 

 not only with his eyes but also " With mind that sheds a light 

 on what he sees." ^^ 



But the parallelism is even more striking and the hypothesis 

 that Wordsworth remembered his Bartram when he wrote this 

 passage is even more justifiable. Bartram's famous Altamaha 

 piece contains a paragraph which Wordsworth could not have 

 overlooked: 



Thus secure and tranquil, and meditating on the marvellous scene 

 of primitive nature, as yet unmodified by the hand of man, I gently 

 descended the peaceful stream, on whose polished surface were de- 

 picted the mutable shadows from its pensile banks (p. 49). 



It will be recalled that, in " Ruth," Wordsworth used the 

 " Tamaha," and it is certain that Bartram's " solitary wood- 

 pelican, perched upon the utmost elevated spire " of " yon . . . 



^■^ Compare also with a passage in an early draft of Book VIII of The Prelude. 



In MS. Y Wordsworth writes: 



Or like an Indian, when, in solitude 

 And individual glory, he looks out 

 From some high eminence upon a tr(act) 

 Boundless of unappropriated earth (208-211). 



For an explanation of MS. Y see De Selincourt's edition of The Prelude, p. xxiv; 



the lines quoted are from p. 558 of the same volume. 



