Category: Niagara Falls Poetry

Niagara by Charles Pelham Mulvany

(From the French of Louis-Honoré Fréchette) 

mulvany
Louis-Honoré Fréchette

Majestic moves the mighty stream and slow,
Till from that false calm’s semblance, suddenly,
Wild and with echoes shaking earth and sky,
The huge tide plunges in the abyss below,
— It is the cataract! from whose thunderous ire
The wild birds flee in terror far away —
From that dread gulf when with her scarf of fire
The rainbow sits above the torrent’s sway!
Earth quakes, for sudden that vast arching dome
Of green is changed to hills of snow-white foam,
That seethe and boil and bound in tameless pride.
Yet this Thy work, O God, Thy law fulfils,
And while it shakes the everlasting hills,
It spares the straw that floats upon its tide.

Source: This poem by Mulvany was published in Rose-Belford’s Canadian Monthly and National Review, July 1881, vol. 7, no. 1. Toronto: Rose-Belford Publishing Co., 1881. p. 26

Also in the anthology Niagara Mornings by Andrew C. Porteus, 2016.

See the original French language version of Fréchette’s poem here.

Read a biography of Charles Pelham Mulvany

 

World Wonder by Betty J. Beam

(a children’s poem)

Cataracts cascading
Sun shining
Mist mounting
Rainbows arching

Rapids roaring
Gulls soaring
Blossoms blooming
People peering

Picture making
Breath taking
World wonder
Niagara Falls

Source: The author, 2001

Niagara by Henry Howard Brownell

Henry Howard Brownell
Henry Howard Brownell

Has aught like this descended, since the fountains
    Of the Great Deep broke up, in cataracts hurled
And climbing lofty hills, eternal mountains,
    Poured wave on wave above a buried world?

Yon tides are raging, as when storms have striven,
    And the vexed seas, awaking from their sleep,
Are rough with foam, and Neptune’s flocks are driven
    In myriads o’er the green and azure deep.

Ere yet they fall, mark (where that mighty current
    Comes like an army from its mountain home)
How fiercely yon wild steeds amid the torrent,
    With their dark flanks, and manes and crests of foam,

Speed to their doom – yet in the awful centre,
    Where the wild waves rush madliest to the steep,
Just ere that white unfathomed gulf they enter,
    Rear back in horror from the headlong leap;
Continue reading “Niagara by Henry Howard Brownell” →

Niagara Falls – The paradise on earth by Rakhi Jain

Someone once told me, ‘seeing is believing’,
How pertinent that was, I found after exploring,
This artwork of nature, beauty sprinkled everywhere,
The raging river, the fretted fall, the magical mist, that I wish to share.

The white foamy flow,
the mighty wind that blows,
The sunshine is golden,
surely I can say, my heart is stolen!

The rainbow that joins, the heaven to this earth,
The beauty I feel, is in no way dearth,
So much of joy, so much of pleasure,
This lovely sight does have to offer.

The ‘maid of the mist’, lets you meet it face to face,
The gusts, the downdrafts, can’t help but blaze,
‘Journey behind the falls’, leaves you dazed,
With the beauty, enigma and the amazing grace

The gush of water, is though fierce and harsh,
falling down with so much of splash!
But as it descends, the resplendence is endless,
Down as it reaches, it turns into an angel!

This is the moral, it bestows upon us,
Whatever pinnacle we may achieve, let us not lose our humility!

Copyright @ Rakhi

Source: Haryana Online, 2004

Niagara Falls – Viagra Calls by Larry Pace

Certificate showing a couple honeymooned in Niagara Falls
Certificate showing a couple honeymooned in Niagara Falls

They honeymoon in Canada
to see Niagara Falls.
She’s young, and he is very old,
but oh, Viagra calls!

A single night of nuptial bliss
these newlyweds will face.
The pills work well—but truth to tell,
his old heart can’t keep pace.

Niagara Falls: Viagra calls
for just a little while;
a widow for a newlywed,
a dead groom with a smile.

She cashes the insurance check
and goes back to St. Paul;
she thanks the Lord for Viagra
and for Niagara Falls!

© 2001 Larry Pace

Source: The author, 2001