Thomas Cole's poetry the collected poems of America's foremost painter of the Hudson River School reflecting his feelings for nature and the romantic spirit of the Nineteenth Century |
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 | Thomas Cole's poetry |  |
49
9.
To Mount Washington
Hail Monarch of a thousand giant hills!Who settest proudly on the earth thy throne!
Crowned with the clouds and the lightenings. Hail!
Vast monument of power that God hath reared
Upon the lowly earth to conquer time
And measure out eternity—what sage
So wise can tell when first thy dark rude top
Pierc'd the blue heavens and with the sun midway—
The season—hour—when thou shalt melt away
And vanish like the cloudy mists thou art now nursing?
When the all powerful hand of God shall crush
Thy pond'rous rocks, and cast the dust
Upon the changeful and unresting winds?
Not one: Man's vaunted works since thou wert reared
Have risen and crumbled—oblivious night
Hath blotted empires out. And mighty things
Have perish'd like a breath that only dying lives—
October, 1828
| Thomas Cole's poetry | |