Category: Niagara Falls Poetry

A Dialogue by H. Foote et al.

table
The title page of the Table Rock Album


H. Foote:

To hear this water roar,
To see this water pour,
Is certainly much more,
Than I’ve heard or seen before

A. Legg:

To hear a jackass bray
Is nothing new to-day —
You can neither sing nor say;
So you may go away.

Francis Head:

You had better toddle too,
For you’re blockheads through and through —
‘Pon my honor, it is true —
Cock-a-doodle-doo.

Durham:

Good morning, how d’ye do?
How much wiser, pray are you,
Than the other stupid two?
Tell me that and tell me true.

Source: Table Rock Album and Sketches of the Falls and Scenery Adjacent. Buffalo: Steam Press of Thomas and Lathrops, copyright by Jewett, Thomas & Co.,1856c.1848

This link takes you to the scanned version of  the 1855 version of Table Rock Album from the Hathi Trust

See the Table of Contents of the Table Rock Album on this site.

Untitled by Emphatic

table
The title page of the Table Rock Album

Roll on, Niagara, ― for ever roll ―
You look so GRAND and yet so droll!

 

Source: Table Rock Album and Sketches of the Falls and Scenery Adjacent. Buffalo: Steam Press of Thomas and Lathrops, copyright by Jewett, Thomas & Co.,1856c.1848

This link takes you to the scanned version of  the 1855 version of Table Rock Album from the Hathi Trust

See the Table of Contents of the Table Rock Album on this site.

Untitled by E.J.H.

table
The title page of the Table Rock Album

Niagara, it has been sung,
Can speak so loud without a tongue,
‡‡You hear its voice a mile hence;
But I a greater wonder know ―
A pretty woman, who, although
‡‡She has a tongue, keeps silence!

 

Source: Table Rock Album and Sketches of the Falls and Scenery Adjacent. Buffalo: Steam Press of Thomas and Lathrops, copyright by Jewett, Thomas & Co.,1856c.1848

This link takes you to the scanned version of  the 1855 version of Table Rock Album from the Hathi Trust

See the Table of Contents of the Table Rock Album on this site.

Untitled by Thomas A. Dwyn

table
The title page of the Table Rock Album

While standing under the horse-shoe Fall,
Didn’t it look grand — and you feel small?

 

Dwyn was from Dublin, Ireland

 

Source: Table Rock Album and Sketches of the Falls and Scenery Adjacent. Buffalo: Steam Press of Thomas and Lathrops, copyright by Jewett, Thomas & Co.,1856c.1848

This link takes you to the scanned version of  the 1855 version of Table Rock Album from the Hathi Trust

See the Table of Contents of the Table Rock Album on this site.

Untitled by Francis Duncan

table
The title page of the Table Rock Album

Roll on, Niagara, thou mighty cataract,
Magnificent memento of the power of God!
Thy changeless song of praise commenced with time,
And will continue to eternity.

On this, the morning that commemorates
The resurrection of the Son of God —
The hour when Christians meet to worship Him —
I hail thee with astonishment and awe.

This poem by Francis Duncan was found in the Table Rock Album and Sketches of the Falls and Scenery Adjacent. Buffalo: Steam Press of Thomas and Lathrops, copyright by Jewett, Thomas & Co.,1856c.1848

This link takes you to the scanned version of  the 1855 version of Table Rock Album from the Hathi Trust

See the Table of Contents of the Table Rock Album on this site.

It is possible that Francis Duncan was the Royal Artillery Officer and later British MP. He is known to have been in Canada by 1861. The entry in Table Rock Album is undated, but this edition was published in 1856. Read about Duncan here