Lines on the Death of Captain Webb by James Gay

webb
Captain Matthew Webb who lost his life attempting to swim the Whirlpool Rapids July 24 1883. Courtesy of Niagara Falls Public Library

These verses composed on one of the brightest of men,
Can never return on earth again.
No man like him before ever swam from shore to shore:
This was done by him as hundreds have seen
From Dover in Kent to Calais Green.
He left his wife and children dear,
His lot was cast this proves so clear.

Could see no danger before his eyes,
Death took him quickly by surprise.
No doubt he thought himself clever,
Could never have thought to breathe his last in Niagara river—
Where no man on earth could ever swim
Across this whirlpool, never, never.
This brave young man, he caused no strife,
Cut down in the prime of life, left behind him a widowed wife.

‘Tis not for man to frown or brawl,
His lot was cast in Niagara Falls.
I saw his likeness in Marshall’s place,
Plain to be seen without disgrace.

Those men in his company that day were clever,
Could not see his danger in Niagara river.
It was not to be, the young and fast,
This was laid out for him to breathe his last.
As I have often said, and say again,
I am sorry to hear of an untimely end.

‘Tis time for us all to prepare for fear of this dreadful snare;
As this roaring lion is around every day,
Our precious souls for to betray.
Let us cast all our fears on Christ, and on his word rely—
We can all live happy while on this earth,
And in heaven when we die.

Composed by
James Gay,
The Master of all Poets this day.

Royal City of Guelph, East Market Square.
N.B.—Your poet is about to visit these falls,
Where Captain Webb received his death call.

Source: James Gay. Canada’s Poet. London: Field & Tuer, [1884]

James Gay was the self-styled Poet Laureate of Canada and Master of All Poets

This poem is featured in episode 3 of the Niagara Falls History and Poetry podcast

Read about James Gay in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography

Read about Captain Webb here

Crawford Kilian rated James Gay as #1 in the article Canada’s Five Worst Poets: Are You Number Six? in The Tyee.

The War Reporter Paul Watson Takes Some Afghans to Niagara by Dan O’Brien

dan
Binoculars for viewing Niagara Falls by Amels from Unsplash

A force mightier than war. Heard falling
sideways underfoot and over the cusp
of everything and nothing. Inspiring
rainbows in its pillowing haze. While limbs
emerge black through sheaths of ice. Dun grass breaks
through scabrous snow. Aprille. As pilgrims’ breath
unfurls at the railing and the wind beats
up my microphone. Plastic scraps whistling
in the razor wire of thorn bushes like
opium poppies. So we descend to view
the punishing wheel, foam specks floating, light
winking through epaulets on Sayed’s shirt
while families barricade their daughters
between their bellies. When Roya sneezes
she finds herself speaking English: I beg
your pardon. Elevating to the roar
above, again, flags flapping and peering
through coin-operated eyes at allies
on the other side. It’s so much smaller
than in all the pictures! I fell asleep
driving them home that night. When the rumble
strip woke us up — another tragedy
averted.

Source: The Fiddlehead, 2015, vol. 265, p. 31

Also published in Dan O’Brien New Life. Brooklyn: Hanging Loose Press, 2016. Distributed by SPD: Small Press Distribution. Click here for more information

Click here for Dan O’Brien’s website

Read On “New Life”: an Interview with Dan O’Brien by Lauren Prastien in the Michigan Quarterly Review, October 7, 2015

The Burning of the Caroline by Susanna Moodie

Moodie

Moodie
Burning steamer Caroline going over the Falls of Niagara. Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada

A sound is on the midnight deep—
‡‡The voice of waters vast;
And onward, with resistless sweep,
‡‡The torrent rushes past—
In frantic chase, wave after wave,
The crowding surges press, and rave
‡‡Their mingled might to cast
Adown Niagara‘s giant steep;
The fretted billows foaming leap
‡‡With wild tumultuous roar;
The clashing din ascends on high,
In deaf’ning thunders to the sky,
‡‡And shakes the rocky shore.

Hark! what strange sounds arise—
‡‡‘Tis not stern Nature’s voice—
In mingled chorus to the skies!
‡‡The waters in their depth rejoice.
Hark! on the midnight air
‡‡A frantic cry uprose;
The yell of fierce despair,
‡‡The shout of mortal foes;
And mark yon sudden glare,
‡‡Whose red, portentous gleam
‡‡Flashes on rock and stream
With strange, unearthly light;
‡‡What passing meteor’s beam
Lays bare the brow of night?

From yonder murky shore
‡‡What demon vessel glides,
‡‡Stemming the unstemm’d tides,
Where maddening breakers roar
‡‡In hostile surges round her path,
Or hiss, recoiling from her prow,
‡‡That reeling, staggers to their wrath;
While distant shores return the glow
‡‡That brightens from her burning frame,
And all above—around—below—
‡‡Is wrapt in ruddy flame?

Sail on!—sail on!—No mortal hand
‡‡Directs that vessel’s blazing course;
The vengeance of an injured land
‡‡Impels her with resistless force
‘Midst breaking wave and fiery gleam,
‡‡O’er-canopied with clouds of smoke;
Midway she stems the raging stream,
‡‡And feels the rapids’ thundering stroke;
Now buried deep, now whirl’d on high,
‡‡She struggles with her awful doom,—
With frantic speed now hurries by
‡‡To find a watery tomb.

Lo, poised upon the topmost surge,
‡‡She shudders o’er the dark abyss;
The foaming waters round her hiss
‡‡And hoarse waves ring her funeral dirge;
The chafing billows round her close;
‡‡But ere her burning planks are riven,
Shoots up one ruddy spout of fire,—
‡‡Her last farewell to earth and heaven.
Down, down to endless night she goes!
‡‡So may the traitor’s hope expire,
So perish all our country’s foes!

Destruction’s blazing star
‡‡Has vanish’d from our sight;
The thunderbolt of war
‡‡Is quench’d in endless night;
Nor sight, nor sound of fear
Startles the listening ear;
‡‡Naught but the torrent’s roar,
The dull, deep, heavy sound,
From out the dark profound,
‡‡Echoes from shore to shore.
Where late the cry of blood
‡‡Rang on the midnight air,
The mournful lapsing of the flood,
The wild winds in the lonely wood,
‡‡Claim sole dominion there.

To thee, high-hearted Drew!
‡‡And thy victorious band
Of heroes tried and true
A nation’s thanks are due.
‡‡Defender of an injured land!
Well hast thou taught the dastard foe
‡‡That British honour never yields
To democratic influence, low,
‡‡The glory of a thousand fields.

Justice to traitors, long delay’d,
‡‡This night was boldly dealt by thee;
The debt of vengeance thou hast paid,
‡‡And may the deed immortal be.
Thy outraged country shall bestow
‡‡A lasting monument of fame,
The highest meed of praise below—
‡‡A British patriot’s deathless name!

Source: Susanna Moodie. Roughing it in the Bush; or, Life in Canada. vol. II. London: Richard Bentley, 1852.

The burning Steamer Caroline went over the Horseshoe Falls on the night of December 29, 1837. Read about the burning of the Caroline at the Niagara Falls Museums website

Blondin by Walter de la Mare

blondin
Mons. Blondin’s walk across the cataract. Charles Magnus publisher. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

With clinging dainty catlike tread,
His pole in balance, hand to hand,
And, softly smiling, into space
He ventures on that threadlike strand.

Above him is the enormous sky,
Beneath, a frenzied torrent roars,
Surging where massed Niagara
Its snow-foamed arc of water pours:

But he, with eye serene as his
Who sits in daydream by the fire,
His every sinew, bone and nerve
Obedient to his least desire,

Treads softly on, with light-drawn breath,
Each inch-long toe, precisely pat,
In inward trust, past wit to probe—
This death-defying acrobat! …

Like some old Saint on his old rope-bridge,
Between another world and this,
Dead-calm ‘mid inward vortices,
Where little else but danger is.

Source: De la Mare, Walter. Collected Poems. London: Faber & Faber, 1979

Blondin was first published in De la Mare, Walter. Inward Companion. London: Faber and Faber, 1950.

Blondin crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope in 1859 and 1860.

Read more about Blondin here

Disappointed Again. by Fun Magazine

“It is announced that Oscar Wilde was also disappointed with Niagara”

oscar wilde
Oscar Wilde photographed by Napoleon Sarony, 1882. Courtesy of Library of Congress

Universe, you are a failure,
‡‡You’re one masterly mistake;
Firmamental glories, pale your
‡‡Fires, and played-out old earth, quake.
You may teem with hidden treasure,
‡‡But we won’t be reconciled,
Since you seem to take a pleasure
‡‡In disappointing Wilde.

In the lake, as in the ocean,
‡‡Torrents’ rush, and waves that roll,
Failing to impart emotion
‡‡To his fine fastidious soul;
You may just as well, Dame Nater,
‡‡Shut up shop, to draw it mild,
As let cataract and crater
‡‡Go disappointing Wilde.

Or, perhaps you’d best endeavour
‡‡To improve your old design,
Make catastrophes more clever,
‡‡And phenomena more fine.
Dye Niagara rose-madder,
‡‡Have the wide Atlantic biled:
Then he may feel somewhat gladder,
‡‡The disappointed Wilde.

When they meet his pensive gaze, oh,
‡‡Take a ‘cute scene-painter’s hints,
Add ten leagues to Chimborazo,
‡‡To the rainbow ten new tints;
Let Mount Etna vomit lava
‡‡With a monster saucepan tiled,
So he will but murmur, Brava!”
‡‡The disappointed Wilde.

Then you might transpose each season,
‡‡Make the roses oust the snows,
Give the Tory party reason,
‡‡And the Irish one repose;
But, perhaps, the multiplying
‡‡Of the dollar-heap he’s piled,
Would be best for satisfying,
‡‡Not disappointing, Wilde.

Source: “Still Disappointed” in Cooper, John. Oscar Wilde in America Blog: Niagara Falls, 2016. Retrieved from  https://oscarwildeinamerica.blog/2016/03/07/niagara-falls/comment-page-1/

Originally published in Fun magazine, March 8, 1882, in response to Wilde’s widely quoted comment that “Every American bride is taken there, and the sight of the stupendous waterfall must be one of the earliest, if not the keenest, disappointments in American married life” – quoted in Carr, Jamie M. Niagaras of Ink: Famous Writers at the Falls. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2020. p. 50.