N ature’s great masterpiece ! how feeble man
I n vain essays of thee and thine to tell —
A ll wondrous as thou art — a mighty plan —
G reat, glorious, grand and indescribable !
A nd fain would measure thee with pigmy span !
“R efrain,” each object cries — “Lay down thy rod,
A nd look thro’ Nature, up to Nature’s God.
August 18, 1834
Source: Dr. Thomas Rolph. A Brief Account, Together With Observations, Made During a Visit in the West Indies, and a Tour Through the United States of America, in Parts of the Years 1832-3; Together With a Statistical Account of Upper Canada. Dundas, U.C. : G. Heyworth Hackstaff, Printer, 1836.
Rolph mentions this acrostic poem was written in the Table Rock Album; it is not published in Thomas & Lathrop’s excerpts from the Table Rock Album. Rolph would have been looking at the original. See the Table of Contents of the Table Rock Albums