Category: Niagara History & Folklore
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The Wonderful Leaps of Sam Patch by Anonymous
[n.b. This is the Niagara section only] Next, to Niagara thousands flock, To see him jump from Table Rock, Into these waters, thunder-hurled, The seventh wonder of the world. Folks swarmed on bank and giddy ledge, On dangerous precipice’s edge, Nay, really, it has been said, They stood one on the other’s head, To get…
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Brock by Charles Sangster
October 13th, 1859 * One voice, one people, one in heart ……..And soul, and feeling, and desire ! ……..Re-light the smouldering martial fire, ……..Sound the mute trumpet, strike the lyre, ……..The hero deed can not expire, ……………The dead still play their part. Raise high the monumental stone ! ……..A nation’s fealty is theirs, ……..And we are the rejoicing heirs, ……..The honored sons of sires whose cares ……..We take upon us unawares, ……………As freely as our own. We boast not of the victory, ……..But render homage, deep and just, ……..To his — to their — immortal dust, ……..Who proved so worthy of their trust ……..No lofty pile nor sculptured bust ……………Can herald their degree. No tongue need blazon forth their fame — ……..The cheers that stir the sacred hill ……..Are but mere promptings of the will ……..That conquered then, that conquers still ; ……..And generations yet shall thrill ……………At Brock’s remembered name. Some souls are the Hesperides ……..Heaven sends to guard the golden age, ……..Illuming the historic page ……..With records of their pilgrimage ; ……..True Martyr, Hero, Poet, Sage : ……………And he was one of these. Each in his lofty sphere sublime ……..Sits crowned above the common throng, ……..Wrestling with some Pythonic wrong, ……..In prayer, in thunder, thought, or song ; ……..Briareus-limbed, they sweep along, ……………The Typhons of the time. * The day of the inauguration of the new Monument on Queenston Heights. Source: Charles Sangster. Hesperus, and Other Poems and Lyrics. Montreal: John Lovell, 1860. Read about Charles Sangster D.M.R.…
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From Queenston Heights by Charles Sangster
….Eleven. Welcome to the Sabbath bells ! A blessing and a welcome ! At this hour One prays for me at home, two hundred miles From where I lounge along the grassy knoll, Far up upon this classic hill. The air Hath a delicious feeling, as it breathes Its autumn breath upon…
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Judy’s Hootenanny by Bob Chambers
♪ ♪ Come all you young people and listen to me, Never smoke cigarettes or ♪ a corpse you will be, For once it was smart, but ♫ now it’s forlorn, And smoking will kill you as sure as you’re born! ♪ ♪ The cartoon was drawn by Bob Chambers, who worked for the…
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The Niagara Way of Death Presentation
Tonight (May 18) at 7pm I’ll be doing the online presentation “The Niagara Way of Death: Depictions of Death & Near Death in the Poetry of Niagara Falls” at the Niagara Poetry Guild meeting. Please join us through the link at Meetup Death is a pervasive topic in the poetry written about Niagara Falls. In…