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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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96

[42. And shall I halt midway in my career]

And shall I halt midway in my career,
Just as I see the beauteous Fane appear
'Mid th' golden clouds of the horizon far
The Shrine of my devotion and my pilgrimage—
Find neath my feet which yet unwearied are;
Before my eyes undimmed as yet by age
A gulf mysterious whose cloudy depths defy
A passage—Vain are my efforts—Hope is near to die—
July 1, 1838