164 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



have seen that the pelican, which first appears in The Borderers, 

 reappears in The Prelude in a context which points definitely 

 to Bartram as its source. The passage deserves attention for 

 more than its borrowing of an exotic bird from Bartram. Here 

 Wordsworth, displeased with the Cambridge of his time, imag- 

 ines the surroundings of a contrasting seat of learning: 



Oh, what joy 

 To see a sanctuary for our country's youth 

 Informed with such a spirit as might be 

 Its own protection; a primeval grove, 

 Where, though the shades of cheerfulness were filled. 

 Nor indigent of songs warbled from crowds 

 In under-coverts, yet the countenance 

 Of the whole place should bear a stamp of awe ; 

 A habitation sober and demure 

 For ruminating creatures; a domain 

 For quiet things to wander in; a haunt 

 In which the heron should delight to feed 

 By the shy rivers, and the pelican 

 Upon the cypress spire in lonely thought 

 Might sit and sun himself (III, 430-444) . 



" The whole passage," remarks Professor Cooper," — ruminat- 

 ing creatures, pelican, cypress spire, and all — is a remarkable 

 adaptation of a scene depicted by the Quaker botanist, William 

 Bartram, on the banks of the Altamaha, in Georgia." ^® 



The scene to which Professor Cooper refers is, of course, the 

 same Altamaha piece which has been discussed in connection 

 with The Excursion and from which a paragraph has been 

 quoted. Other portions are: 



I ascended this beautiful river, on whose fruitful banks the generous 

 and true sons of liberty securely dwell, fifty miles above the white 

 settlements. . . . My progress was rendered delightful by the sylvan 

 elegance of the groves, chearful meadows, and high distant forests, 

 which in grand order presented themselves to view. The winding banks 

 of the river, and the high projecting promontories, unfolded fresh 

 scenes of grandeur and sublimity. The deep forests and distant hills 

 re-echoed the chearing social lowings of domestic herds. The air was 

 filled with the loud and shrill whooping of the wary sharp-sighted 

 crane. Behold, on yon decayed, defoliated Cypress tree, the solitary 



"Modern Language Notes, XXII, 112. 



