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 |  |
I sat beside a lake serene and still
Earth's off'ring to th' imperial sky,
Which the huge heav'nward mountains aloft held
The purest she possest—Around it rose
Walls of indurate rock, that upward swept
Until they quiver'd mid th' Empyrean
An amphitheatre hugely built it seemed
By giants of the primal world, and though
The flood destroyed the mighty builders—hurled
From dizzy heights the ponderous battlements
And crush'd the massive seats; it yet remained
A ruin more sublime than if a thousand
Roman colloseums had been pil'd in one—
Earth's off'ring to th' imperial sky,
Which the huge heav'nward mountains aloft held
The purest she possest—Around it rose
Walls of indurate rock, that upward swept
Until they quiver'd mid th' Empyrean
An amphitheatre hugely built it seemed
By giants of the primal world, and though
The flood destroyed the mighty builders—hurled
From dizzy heights the ponderous battlements
101
A ruin more sublime than if a thousand
Roman colloseums had been pil'd in one—
| Thomas Cole's poetry | |