Web Writing That Works!

           A Project of
           The Communication Circle

Guidelines Rants Patterns Poems Services Classes Press Blog Resources About Us Site Map

HomePoems > Kubla Khan > Sources > James Bruce > 1. Approaching the source of the Nile                          

 

 

1. Approaching the source of the Nile

2. Source of the Nile

3. Another discovery of the source of the Nile

4. Nile twisting and turning

5. Abyssinia

6. Abola

7. Astaboras River

8. Floating hair

9. Prophecies of war

James Bruce

1. Approaching the source of the Nile

Lowes argues that Coleridge's Xanadu resembles the area around the fountain from which the Nile begins.

One thread of imagery, then, suggests that the site is the long-sought but rarely found source of the Nile, one of the four sacred rivers that tradition says flowed out of Paradise.

Lowes has stitched together phrases and sentences from eight out of 47 consecutive pages, creating a miniature narrative of Bruce's journey as he approached the source of the Nile.

Bruce's guide led him through a very thick wood, in a situation that Bruce found romantic.

At that point the Nile was not more than four yards wide, shaded by cedars. The thick groves seemed a cover from which savage animals might burst at any moment.

Nearing the source, Bruce hesitated, because the water was enchanted.

In the middle of a hill, there was a cliff called Geesh. In that cliff, in the direction of the fountain from which the Nile flows, Bruce found a large cave, suggesting that perhaps the Nile itself came out of those depths.

From the cliff, the ground sloped downhill very gradually, descending toward the fountain itself.

In these particulars, gathered together into an anthology, the narrative does seem to echo Coleridge's poem.

Other sources

William Bartram
William Beckford
F. Bernier
Thomas Burnet
William Collins
Herodotus
Athanasius Kircher
Jerome Lobo
Thomas Maurice
John Milton
Pausanias
Samuel Purchas
Major James Rennell
Seneca
Strabo
Virgil

Mary Wollstonecraft

 

                                               Text

The (whole mountain) was covered with thick wood, which often occupied the very edge of the precipices on which we stood… Just above this almost impenetrable wood, in a very romantic situation, stands St. Michael, in a hollow space like a nitch between two hills. ….The Nile here is not four yards over. (The whole company) were sitting in the shade of a grove of magnificent cedars …The banks (of the Nile)…are covered with black, dark, and thick groves…a very rude and awful face of nature, a cover from which our fancy suggested a lion should issue, or some animal or monster yet more savage and ferocious …. "Strates," said I, 'be in no such haste; remember the water is inchanted.' ….In the middle of this cliff (at Geesh), in a direction straight north towards the fountains is a prodigious cave …From the edge of the cliff of Geesh….the ground slopes with a very easy descent due north….On the east the ground descends likewise with a very easy….slope. From (the) west side of it…the ascent is very easy and gradual…all the way covered with good earth, producing fine grass. --Bruce III, 589, 593, 563-4, 600, 634, 635-6.

 
Word Line # Line Sources for word
Amid 20 Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst  Bernier 1
 Bernier 3
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2
 Herodotus
 Milton 4
 Purchas 1
 Purchas 2
 Wollstonecraft
Caverns

4

Through caverns measureless to man

 Bartram 5
 Bruce 1
 Kircher 2
 Rennell
 Strabo 2
 Wollstonecraft

 

27

Then reached the caverns measureless to man

 Bartram 5
 Bruce 1
 Kircher 2
 Rennell
 Strabo 2
 Wollstonecraft

Caves

34

From the fountain and the caves

 Bruce 1
 Kircher 2
 Maurice 2
 Milton 4

 Rennell

 

36

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

 Bruce 1
 Kircher 2
 Maurice 2
 Milton 4

 Rennell

 

47

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

 Bruce 1
 Kircher 2
 Maurice 2
 Milton 4
 Rennell

Cedarn

13

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover

 Beckford
 Bruce 1
 Kircher 2
 Milton 1

Cover

13

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover

 Bruce 1
 Bruce 8

Earth

18

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing

 Bartram 2
 Bartram 6
 Bartram 8
 Bernier 2
 Bernier 5
 Bruce 1
 Burnet 2
 Kircher 1

 Kircher 3

 Maurice 1

 Milton 2

 Milton 4
 Pausanias
 Seneca 1
 Seneca 2
 Wollstonecraft

Enchanted

14

A savage place! As holy and enchanted

 Bartram 2
 Bartram 4
 Bartram 5
 Bruce 1
 Collins

Fountain

19

A mighty fountain momently was forced

 Bartram 4
 Bartram 5
 Bartram 6

 Bartram 7

 Bartram 8
 Beckford
 Bernier 2
 Bernier 4
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2

 Bruce 3

 Burnet 1
 Herodotus
 Maurice 2
 Milton 4
 Pausanias
 Rennell
 Seneca 1
 Virgil
 Wollstonecraft

 

34

From the fountain and the caves

 Bartram 4
 Bartram 5
 Bartram 6

 Bartram 7

 Bartram 8
 Beckford
 Bernier 2
 Bernier 4
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2

 Bruce 3

 Burnet 1
 Herodotus
 Maurice 2
 Milton 4
 Pausanias
 Rennell
 Seneca 1
 Virgil
 Wollstonecraft

Ground

6

So twice five miles of fertile ground

 Bartram 3
 Bruce 1

 Bruce 2
 Burnet 1

 Milton 4
 Purchas 1

Hill

13

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover

 Beckford
 Bernier 1
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2
 Bruce 7

 Bruce 9

 Milton 3
 Milton 4

 Purchas 5

Hills

10

And here were forests ancient as the hills

 Bernier 1
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2
 Bruce 7

 Bruce 9

 Milton 3
 Milton 4

 Purchas 5

Mid 23    Bernier 1
 Bernier 3
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2
 Herodotus
 Milton 4
 Purchas 1
 Purchas 2
 Wollstonecraft
  29   Bernier 1
Bernier 3
Bruce 1
Bruce 2
Herodotus
Milton 4
Purchas 1
Purchas 2
Wollstonecraft
Midway 32 Floated midway on the waves Bernier 1
Bernier 3
Bruce 1
Bruce 2
Herodotus
Milton 4
Purchas 1
Purchas 2
Wollstonecraft
Paradise

54

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

 Beckford
 Bruce 1
 Burnet 1
 Kircher 1
 Milton 1
 Milton 2
 Milton 4
 Milton 5
 Milton 6

 Purchas 4

Romantic

12

But oh! That deep romantic chasm which slanted

 Bruce 1
 Rennell
 

Savage

14

A savage place! As holy and enchanted

 Bruce 1
 
Milton 3

Slanted

12

But oh! That deep romantic chasm which slanted

 Bruce 1

Thick 18 As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing  Bartram 3
 Bruce 1
 Bruce 2
 Milton 3

 

 

Home | Guidelines | Rants | Patterns | Poems | Services | Classes | Press | Blog |
Resources | About Us | Site Map

Web Writing that Works!
http://www.WebWritingThatWorks.com
 © 2004 Jonathan Price
The Communication Circle
Discuss at HotText@yahoogroups.com
Email us directly at ThePrices@ThePrices.com