Mount Tahawas

Toiling, we reach'd a bare, gigantic cone,
The lofty summit of Tahawas Mount;
How grand the view spread limitless!
There far-up skies we reach'd the utmost height,
The loftiest region in the Empire State,
The centre of a chaos of great cliffs.
How diverse from the mountain range of Alps!
Here rose no shining glaciers or snowy peaks,
But all was gray or green to farthest view.
It seems as if the Almighty had here set
The vast earth rolling in tempestuous seas,
And then in 'midst of its convulsive flow,
Had bid the billows here congealing cease;
There they remain just as He froze the rocks,
So grand and gloomy, in majestic height!
Here swept long swells, and there were bursting waves,
There, too, the deep and cavernous black gulfs.
Far, far away, storm was raging fierce,
While massive clouds o'er Vermont's distant hills
Stood motionless, as balanced in the skies;
Those far-off storms spread 'gainst the mountain range,
With nought but savage scenery between!
How grand, mysterious, awful did it seem!
Mount Golden with its precipices steep;
Mount Mclntyre with black and barren head,
White Face with bright spot gleaming on its face,
And countless other summits pierced the air:
Then, too, thick forests, boundless in extent,
Green slopes and ridges, interspersed with lakes,
Form'd wilderness, seamed here and there by streams
Whose course was seen thro' gaps of lofty trees;
Yes, there was beauty, grandeur in the scene!
Lake Champlain, with its islands stretched afar,
And the Green Mountains tower'd along the east.
Far up the north gleam'd out Saranac Lakes,
And nearer lakes in quiet beauty shone;
Great lakes—some dark with girdling mounts,
And others flashing out in landscape wide,
Like smiles relieving the vast solitude!
It seemed as if we saw sublimity and strength;
Vagueness and terror are embodied here!
As if God wrought extremest power here,
A mighty symbol of omnipotence!
And man is nothing here, a thing of nought!