Niagara by Anonymous

porter goat 2

porter goat 2
Sketch of Goat Island and American Rapids, A.D. 1800, by C. Breckinridge Porter

Great Fall, all hail:
Canst thou unveil
The secrets of thy birth;
Unfold the page
Of each dark age,
And tell the tales of earth?

When I was born
The stars of morn
Together sang — ’twas day:’
The sun unrolled
His garb of gold
And took his upward way.

He mounted high
The eastern sky
And then looked down on earth;
And she was there,
Young, fresh, and fair,
And I, and all, had birth.

The word of power
Was spoke that hour:
Dark chaos felt the shock;
Forth sprung the light,
Burst day from night,
Up leaped the living rock.

Back fell the sea
The land was free,
And mountain, hill, and plain
Stood forth to view,
In emerald hue,—
Then sang the stars amain.

And I —oh thou:
Who taught me how
To hymn thy wondrous love
Deign to be near
And calm my fear,
O Holy one above.

I caught the word
Creation heard,
And by thy power arose;
His goodness gave
The swelling wave
That ever onward flows.

By his command
The rainbow spanned
My forehead and his will
Evoked the cloud
My feet to shroud,
And taught my voice to trill.

And who is he
That questions me ?
From whom hast thou thy form,
Thy life, thy soul ?
My waters roll
Through day, night, sunshine, storm.

In grateful praise
To him, I raise
A never ceasing song
To that dread one,
To whom stars, sun,
Earth, ocean, all belong.

Thou too adore
Him ever more
Who gave thou all thou hast;
Let time gone by
In darkness die
Deep buried in the past.

And be thy mind
To him inclined
Who made earth, ‘heaven and thee—
Thy every thought
To worship wrought,—
This lesson learn of me.

Source:  Peter Augustus Porter.  Goat Island, 1900

 

The Hermit of the Falls by Lydia Huntley Sigourney

sigourney hermit
Hut on Goat Island Used By Francis Abbott. the Hermit of Niagara, from 1829-1831. Sketch by C. Breckinridge Porter

It was the leafy month of June,
And joyous Nature, all in tune,
‡‡With wreathing buds was drest,
As toward Niagaras fearful side
‡‡A youthful stranger prest;
His ruddy cheek was blanched with awe
And scarce he seemed his breath to draw,
‡‡While bending oer its brim,
He marked its strong, unfathomed tide,
‡‡And heard its thunder-hymn.

His measured week too quickly fled,
Another, and another sped,
And soon the summer rose decayed,
The moon of autumn sank in shade;
Years filled their circle, brief and fair,
Yet still the enthusiast lingered there,
‡‡Till winter hurled its dart:
For deeper round his soul was wove
A mystic chain of quenchless love,
That would not let him part. Continue reading “The Hermit of the Falls by Lydia Huntley Sigourney”

Farewell to Niagara by Lydia Huntley Sigourney

sigourney farewell
The Horse-shoe Falls (From the Canadian Side) by W. H. Bartlett, 1842. Courtesy of Niagara Falls Public Library

My spirit grieves to say, Farewell to thee,
Oh beautiful and glorious!
                                  Thou dost robe
Thyself in mantle of the coloured mist,
Most lightly tinged, and exquisite as thought,
Decking thy forehead with a crown of gems
Woven by Gods right hand.
                                  Hadst thou but wrapped
Thy brow in clouds, and swept the blinding mist
In showers upon us, it had been less hard
To part from thee.    But there thou art, sublime
In noon-day splendour, gathering all thy rays
Unto their climax, green, and fleecy white,
And changeful tinture, for which words of man
Have neither sign nor sound, until to breathe
Farewell in agony.    For we have roamed
Beside thee, at our will, and drawn thy voice
Into our secret soul, and felt how good
Thus to be here, until we half implored,
While long in wildering ecstasy we gazed,
To build us tabernacles, and behold
Always thy majesty.
                                  Fain would we dwell
Here at thy feet, and be thy worshipper,
And from the weariness and dust of earth
Steal evermore away.   Yea, were it not
That many a care doth bind us here below,
And in each care, a duty, like a flower,
Thorn-hedged, perchance, yet fed with dews of heaven,
And in each duty, an enclosed joy,
Which like a honey-searching bee doth sing, —
And were it not, that ever in our path
Spring up our planted seeds of love and grief,
Which we must watch, and bring their perfect fruit
Into our Masters garner, it were sweet
To linger here, and be thy worshipper,
Until deaths footstep broke this dream of life.

Source:  Sigourney, Lydia H. Scenes In My Native Land. London: W. Tweedie, 1844. p. 236-237.

 

En El Niágara by Rafael Pombo

pombo
Portrait of Rafael Pombo, 1833-1912
Dedicada en prenda de respetuosa admiración y de profundo reconocimiento a la señora María Juana Christie de Serrano.


    ¡Ahí estás otra vez. . . ! El mismo hechizo
que años ha conocí, monstruo de gracia,
blanco, fascinador, enorme, augusto,
sultán de los torrentes, 
muelle y sereno en tu sin par pujanza. 
¡Ahí estás siempre el Niágara! Perenne 
en tu extático trance, en ese vértigo 
de voluntad tremenda, sin cansarte 
nunca de ti, ni el hombre de admirarte. 

    ¡Cómo cansarse! La belleza activa, 
la siempre viva, porque siempre pura, 
no puede fatigar. Hija perfecta 
sin medio humano, del excelso fiat 
que perpetuaron leyes inviolables 
en su incesante acción; mimada hermana 
del firmamento, de la luz, del aire; 
huésped no expulsado del edén perdido; 
esta hermosura es creación constante 
y original, donde trasciende el soplo 
de su autor soberano. Algo nos dice 
que allí está Dios: el néctar de embeleso 
y de reparación que a un tiempo mana. 
Al contemplarla, en nuestro fondo bullen 
los dormitados gérmenes divinos, 
cual hierve al sol el ánima viviente 
de la naturaleza; y surge ansioso 
el amor de familia, el de la eterna 
e indisoluble; y como al mar la gota 
emancipada al fin de térreos lazos, 
como del pecho de la madre el niño, 
mudos de íntimo gozo nos prendemos 
en comunión de eternidad con ella. 
¿Podrá Dios fatigar? ¡Ah! en lo que hastía 
hay encanto letal, triste principio 
de inercia, hostil a Dios, germen de muerte, 
gangrena de las almas secuestradas 
de su raudal vivífico... 
                Mas ¿dónde 
mi mente descendió? Llámala al punto. 
¡Oh Niágara! y en ti la imagen vea
de las almas triunfantes; mire al héroe 
sublime en su martirio; al genio mire 
sereno en la conciencia de su fuerza. 
Distráeme, diviérteme, museo 
de cataratas, fábrica de nubes; 
mar desfondado al peso de tus hondas; 
columnas que un omnipotente Alcides 
descolgó del Olimpo, entre dos vastos 
Mediterráneos, piélagos de un mundo.
   Continue reading "En El Niágara  by Rafael Pombo" 

Niagara In Spring by William Carey Richards

richards niagara
Undated Postcard Showing Niagara Falls in Springtime. Courtesy Niagara Falls Public Library.

Oh, could I gaze forever on thy face,
Unwearied still, thou matchless waterfall,
Whose twining spells of majesty and grace
My ardent sense bewilder and enthrall!

In all my moods thy charms puissant sway
Enforce my will their master-spell to own;
My heart leaps at thy voice — or grave or gay —
And every chord is vibrant to thy tone.

So many years I have come back to stand,
With reverent awe, before thy glorious shrine —
So close and long thy lineaments Ive scanned —
It seemed thou shouldst grow something less divine.

I know thy face, its shifting glooms and smiles,
As cloud or sun upon thy bosom lies;
Thy wrathful guise, thy witching rainbow wiles
Can wake no more for me the sweet surprise.

I know thy voice — its terror and its glee
Have in my ear so oft their changes rung;
Nor forest winds nor anthems of the sea
Speak to my soul with more familiar tongue.

My feet have scaled thy storm-scarred battlements,
And pressed the moss most emerald with thy tears;
And still profaned thy lucent caverns, whence
The neophyte comes pale with ghostly fears. Continue reading “Niagara In Spring by William Carey Richards”