Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE GATES OF THE HUDSON, by WILLIAM OSBORN STODDARD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE GATES OF THE HUDSON, by                    
First Line: So bright the day, so clear the sky
Last Line: Forever and forever.
Subject(s): Hudson River


So bright the day, so clear the sky,
So grand the scene before me,
My meaner life my soul puts by,
And a better mood comes o'er me.

From under trees whose rustling leaves
Wear all their autumn glory,
I watch the brown fields far below,
And the headlands, gray and hoary.

I see the beetling Palisades,
Whose wrinkled brows forever,
In calms and storms, in lights and shades,
Keep watch along the river.

Such watch, of old, the Magi kept
Along the sad Euphrates: --
Our eyeless ones have never slept;
And this their solemn fate is:

God built these hills in barrier long,
And then he opened through them
These gates of granite, barred so strong
He only might undo them;

Through them he lets the Hudson flow
For slowly counted ages,
The while the nations fade and grow
Around the granite ledges.

He bids these warders watch and wait,
Their vigil ne'er forsaking,
Forever standing by the gate,
Not moving and not speaking.

So, all earth's day, till night shall fall,
When God shall send his orders,
And summon at one trumpet-call
The grim and patient warders,

The guards shall bow, the gates shall close
Upon the obedient river,
And then no more the Hudson flows,
Forever and forever.





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