Cotopaxi, 1862

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#658

Whole Gulfs - of Red, and Fleets - of Red -
And Crews - of solid Blood -
Did place about the West - Tonight -
As 'twere specific Ground -

And They - appointed Creatures -
In Authorized Arrays -
Due - promptly - as a Drama -
That bows - and disappears -

Emily Dickinson, c. 1862

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image: Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), Cotopaxi, 1862, oil on canvas, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan.

At 18,858 feet (5748 m) Cotopaxi was the most impressive of the South American volcanoes; its cone was considered particularly perfect. The New York collector James Lenox commissioned this view in 1861. By that date the Civil War had begun, and Church's decision to depict an eruption has been interpreted as a direct reflection on the tragic turn of events. The rising sun is obscured by the smoke of nature 'at war with itself', and the landscape shows the world 'evolving out of the simultaneous processes of creation and destruction.'

(Source: Tate Britain)

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- the dream, always, for a more perfect union -