Saw ye first, arrayed in mist and cloud; <br />No cheerful lights softened your aspect bold; <br />A sullen gray, or green, more grave and cold, <br />The varied beauties of the scene enshroud. <br />Yet not the less, O Hudson! calm and proud, <br />Did I receive the impress of that hour <br />Which showed thee to me, emblem of that power <br />Of high resolve, to which even rocks have bowed; <br />Thou wouldst not deign thy course to turn aside, <br />And seek some smiling valley's welcome warm, <br />But through the mountain's very heart, thy pride <br />Has been, thy channel and thy banks to form. <br />Not even the 'bulwarks of the world' could bar <br />The inland fount from joining ocean's war!<br /><br />Sarah Margaret Fuller<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-highlands-2/
