“There’s nothing great or bright, thou glorious Fall!”
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Thou mayest not to the fancy’s sense recall,
The thunder-riven cloud, the lightning’s leap,
The stirring of the chambers of the deep,
Earth’s emerald green, and many tinted dyes,
The fleecy whiteness of the upper skies,
The tread of armies thickening as they come,
The boom of cannon and the beat of drum;
The brow of beauty and the form of grace,
The passion and the prowess of our race,
The song of Homer in its loftiest hour,
The unresisted sweep of human power
Britannia’s trident on the azure sea,
America’s young shout of liberty!
Oh! may the waves that madden in thy deep,
There spend their rage nor climb the encircling steep, —
And till the conflict of thy surges cease,
The nations on thy banks repose in peace!
Source: Table Rock Album and Sketches of the Falls and Scenery Adjacent. Buffalo: Steam Press of Thomas and Lathrops, copyright by Jewett, Thomas & Co.,1856c.1848
Also in the anthology Niagara Mornings by Andrew C. Porteus, 2016.
Also published in Johnson, Richard L. (ed). Niagara: Its History, Incidents and Poetry. Washington: Walter Neale General Book Publisher, 1898.
Also published in: Holley, George W., ed. The Falls of Niagara. Baltimore: A.C. Armstrong & Son, 1883
Lord Morpeth was born George William Frederick Howard, was styled as Lord Morpeth from 1825-1848, then became the 7th Earl of Carlisle until his death in 1864