...one might say, the "moving accident." From the beginning, Ruth is a child of the English countryside: And she had made a pipe of straw And from that oaten...she from her birth had been An Infant of the woods. [11.7-12] To this girl steeped in the natural comes "a Youth from Georgia's shore" (1. 13). He uses...

...wanders over 'dale and hill/In thoughtless freedom, bold' (lines 5-6). A Rousseauesque native, she: Had built a bower upon the green, As if she from her birth had been An infant of the woods, (lines 10-12) In her harmonious relationship with the land, she is self possessed - 'Pleased with herself,...

...gallop of verse "), as — When Ruth was left half desolate Her father took another mate ; And Ruth, not seven years old, A slighted child, at her own...over dale and hill, In thoughtless freedom bold. And again, both halves of such a stanza may further be resolved into four-syllabled leonines, as — With...