A Sonnet

This poem was occasioned by the departure of poet William Cullen Bryant’s friend Thomas Cole for Europe to study painting.

Thine eyes shall see the light of distant skies:

Yet, Cole! thy heart shall bear to Europe’s strand

A living image of thy native land,

Such as on thine own glorious canvas lies;

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Lone lakes—savannas where the bison roves—

Rocks rich with summer garlands—solemn streams—

Skies, where the desert eagle wheels and screams—

Spring bloom and autumn blaze of boundless groves.

Fair scenes shall greet thee where thou goest—fair,

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But different—everywhere the trace of men,

Paths, homes, graves, ruins, from the lowest glen

To where life shrinks from the fierce Alpine air,

Gaze on them, till the tears shall dim thy sight,

But keep that earlier, wilder image bright.

(1829)