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6. Subterranean River |
William Bartram:
6. Subterranean River
Coleridge clearly had an image of a river that plunged underground, twisted
through subterranean labyrinths, then rose up in jets, emerging as a
fountain.
Such imagery appears in Bartram, near other passages that Coleridge noted.
More important than the individual parallels in wording is the general
course of the river, descending into the earth, overcoming obstructions, and
boiling up into the air, as a fountain--the whole movement of the water is
reenacted here.
Of course, to highlight the relevant text, Lowes inserts seven ellipses,
erasing passages that would otherwise have diluted the impact of the
analogy.
Text These waters…augment and form…subterraneous rivers, which wander in darkness
beneath the surface of the earth, by innumerable doublings, windings and
secret labyrinths; no doubt in some places forming vast reservoirs and
subterranean lakes…and possibly…meeting irresistible obstructions in their
course, they suddenly break through these perforated fluted rocks, in high,
perpendicular jets….Thus by means of those subterranean courses…they
merge…in those surprising vast fountains. Bartram, p. 226.
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William
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