Vintage Colorado Poetry Poem of the Week June 14, 2004

J. Ernest Whitney graduated from Yale University in 1882. "Ill health," most likely, tuberculosis, brought him to Colorado Springs,1889. He died February 25, 1893, and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

Ute Pass

Photo of Pikes Peak: Dick Miller

Vast corridor through Nature's roofless halls, Pike beckons welcome far across the land To this sole gateway through its granite walls, By Chaos wrought with harsh primeval hand. He scarred his pathway through the frightful chasm With shattered ledge and splintered crag in air, And cliffs that writhe as though, in torturing spasm, Some hideous monster met the Gorgon's stare. But only once he through the ravine stormed, While year by year roamed Beauty in the path, And wheresoe'er she stept, that spot transformed Bears her soft smile amid his work of wrath.                                             --J. Ernest Whitney From  The Pike's Peak Region in Song and Myth by Elijah Clarence Hills, Colorado College Publication, 1913.

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