from Forgotten Poets
Niagara, Niagara ! how glad I
am to think
That Smith was not the first of men
to wander on your brink !
For though the many falls of Smith
were very great indeed,
Had you been called Smith Falls, why,
not a man your call would heed.
And think of Jones, who took a tum-
ble once upon a time—
Suppose that he had been the first to
note your heights sublime ?
Oh, Jones Falls—let’s save the mark !—
had you been named but that,
I’m sure it now were your great self
you would be laughing at.
The Brink of Thunder ! Ah, that’s
the name, Niagara, for you.
The savage heard you shake the earth
and by your voice he knew
Your name. Go on untamed, uncurbed,
stampeding to the sea—
The world’s chief orator are you, Ni-
agara, to me.
Source: Judge Pan-American Number, vol. 40, no 1021, May 11, 1901
Many thanks to Arden Phair for bringing this poem to the curator’s attention.