To forms that, like a mountain, tread the wave,
Or those that, moved by latent fires, compel
The awe-struck flood.
Lo! from his northern home,
The bold, unswerving Hudson. He hath burst
The barrier of his palisades, to look
On this strange scene of beauty, and to swell
With lordly tribute what he scans with pride.
Behold the peerless city, lifting high
Its hallowed spires, and fringed with bristling masts,