voice niagara
Thou art the queen of all rivers, rejoicing in song,
‡‡As you toss the white spray, driving mist to the shore;
And your voice echoes jubilant, resonant, strong —
‡‡O such music ne‘er greeted a mortal before.
And sublime your melodious, thundering boom, —
‡‡A far reaching refrain, so triumphant and long,
‘Tis the meeting of waters that dash to their doom,
‡‡And the sweet intermezzo that creeps in your song.
But the centuries come and the centuries go,
‡‡And the white man now treads where the Indian raced;
Loud your waters still sing, and as restlessly flow,
‡‡As when near the great cataract, wigwams were placed.
You are tragic in splendour, primordially grand,
‡‡And your mystical waves glow with opaline sheen,
With perpetual song, swelling out o‘er the land,
‡‡You enchant us forever, magnificent Queen.
Source: Caroline Eleanor Wilkinson. Poems That Appeal. Niagara Falls, Ont. : F.H. Leslie, Limited,. Printers, 1928.
voice niagara