BARTRAM'S INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE 187 



'Midst the rich verdure of its wooded shores, 

 . . . round the wild retreat 



Scarce have the paths been trod by Indian huntsman's feet. 



(Stanza xiv) 



The forests are around him in their pride, 

 The green savannas, and the mighty waves; 

 . . . o'er his head 



The ancient cedars wave their peopled bowers, 

 On high the palms their graceful foliage spread, 

 Cinctured with roses the magnolia towers. 

 And from those green arcades a thousand tones 

 Wake with each breeze, whose voice through Nature's 

 temple moans. (Stanza xv) -^ 



Another instance of Chateaubriand's influence on Mrs. Hemans 

 is to be found in her " The Stranger in Louisiana." The poem 

 is prefaced by a quotation from Picart's Ceremonies and Religi- 

 ous Customs and by another from Chateaubriand's Souvenirs 

 d'Amerique. These two are obviously the joint source of her 

 material in this case.^" 



It is not possible to claim a Bartram influence on poems for 

 which Mrs. Hemans specifically gives other sources. Neverthe- 

 less there is always a possibility that a poet unconsciously draws 

 upon the store of impressions which have accumulated from pre- 

 vious reading. These impressions merge with, support and 

 round out, as it were, the impressions freshly drawn from a new 

 or recent source. Mrs. Hemans indicates specific sources other 

 than Bartram for her poems, " Edith, a Tale of the Woods," 

 " Indian Woman's Death-Song," " The American Forest Girl," 

 " The Indian with his Dead Child," " The Exile's Dirge," and 

 " The Indian's Revenge," yet in all of them certain glimpses of 

 landscape and often the diction and imagery are strongly remi- 

 niscent of Bartram. For " The Forest Sanctuary " and " The 

 Indian's Revenge " she quotes from Campbell's Gertrude of 

 Wyoming among the sources, a poem upon which Bartram, as 

 has been shown, had a considerable influence. 



" Parallels for almost every line and image in these stanzas abound in Bartram. 

 " Poetical Works, IV, 108. 



