ON THE COAST

THE HURRICANE   written in 1854 (excerpts)

                      by William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) Born in a log cabin in Massachusetts, his father was a lawyer and his mother could trace her ancestry back to the Mayflower. William became a lawyer, and a poet, preferring the latter.By 1825 he became editor of the New York review, published many collections, and even promoted Lincoln to the nomination and the presidency. William Bryant died after a fall in Central Part in New York.

Lord of the winds, I  know thy breath in the burning sky!

And I wait for the coming hurricane.

Silent and slow, and terribly strong, the mighty shadow is borne along.Like the dark eternity to come.

Though the calm of the thick hot atmosphere looks up at its gloomy folds with fear.

They darken fast, and the golden haze of the sun is quenched in the lurid haze. A glare that is neither night nor day.

The cloud above and the earth beneath, to its covert glides the silent  bird. Uplifted among the mountains round, and the forests hear and answer the sound.

His ample robes on the wind unrolled. Giant of air! We bid thee hail!

How his huge and writing arms are bent to clasp the zone of the firmament,

And fold at length,in their dark embrace, from mountain to mountain.....

Darker.still darker...........

The whirlwinds bear the dust of the plains to the air..........

And hark to the crashing, of the chariot of God in the thunder cloud!

You may trace its path by the flashes

From the rapid wheels where ever they dart

As the fire bolts leap to the world below and flood the skies with a lurid glow.

A whirling ocean that fills the wall of the crystal heaven, and buries all. And I cut off from the world, remain alone .......

                                 with the terrible hurricane.

 Photographs 2020