from the frontispiece of his book Orations and Poetry
As I behold Lake Erie’s waters,
….While passing down Niagara’s stream,
I tremble at her awful thunders,
….Like waking from some nightly dream.
Here nature’s God speaks to the stranger,
….And terrifies his soul with fear ;
And shows to him his awful danger,
….If o’er this chasm he should steer.
His mortal barque would dash in sunder,
….And break amid the raging stream ;
The rocks and billows without number,
….Would soon destroy hope’s faintest gleam.
The Indian warrior down was driven,
….Was threaten’d with the waves of death ;
He o’er the cataract was riven,
….And to his fate resigned his breath.
Before he plunged the raging waters,
….Which did his boon of life destroy,
He to the Spirit prayed for quarters,
….In the eternal world of joy.
He took his martial bow and armor,
….And laid them gently by his side ;
And heard the dismal waters murmur,
….As he sailed on the rapid tide.
In steady gaze was fast descending,
….To plunge his deep and dreary grave ;
At length he o’er the verge was bending,
….And sunk beneath the foaming wave.
Such is the emblem of the sinner,
….Whose danger God has long foretold ;
Yet he will spurn his only Savior,
….And sell his life for love of gold.
Source: Roswell Rice. Orations and Poetry, On Moral and Religious Subjects. Albany: C. Van Bentruysen, 1849
Also published in his Rice’s Orations and Poems, Springfield, Mass., Springfield Printing Co., 1883