Niagara: A Poem by Rev. C.H.A. Bulkley

Bulkley ‘s poem is 132 pages long, followed by copious notes about religious references and history and descriptions of the events described in the poem. The full text of the poem can be found on the Hathi Trust site:

 

From Charles Mason Dow’s Anthology and Bibliography of Niagara Falls (p. 742-743):

The author tells us that these 3,600 lines are an attempt to answer the demand for a ” poem of more than ordinary length, truly American in its character ” on Niagara Falls. He says that his ” object has been not so much to describe at length the scenery of Niagara, in order to excite emotions in the reader similar to those of the beholder, for this would be vain endeavor, as to give a transcript of what passes through the mind of one who is supposed to witness so grand an achievement of nature.” The poem is tedious, with commonplace intervals, although it occasionally rises to the heights of true poetry. The analysis which follows gives an idea of the ambition and scope of the undertaking.

Analysis

Introductory apostrophe — themes proposed. Apostrophe to the Fall as a vast form of life. The presence-chamber of God. A knight-errant. Restless spirits. The streams — their lament — its uselessness. The Torrent like Time. A mourner over men and nations. The Indian — his chase — his death-song — his fall. Apostrophe to the Cataract as a Destroyer — an Historian — a warning Prophet — an oracle of Truth — a Chronicler undying — a tireless Laborer — and unswayed by man. The islands — refuge-spots — so are some hearts. Winter — the Fall ice-imprisoned. Spring — with a song of Liberty. Apostrophe to Niagara River — passage down its banks. The Cliffs — Death of Hungerford. The Cave of the Winds. The Pinnacle-Rock. The Whirlpool. Apostrophe to the Fall respecting its origin and early life. The Fall’s Invocation to the Creative Spirit for the Seasons. Evening and Night. The Hermit of the Fall — his birth-place and character — his strain — his melancholy and aspirations — his strife, disappointment, doom, fearful deed, remorse, and death. The Fall a witness of Redemption. Sunrise — typical of Genius. Hymn of Praise. Noon. The Flood’s Invocation. Poet. Musician. The Table- Rock. Beneath the Sheet. The Cataract’s hymn to the Creator. Proof of Deity. The Doom of Time, with the Flood’s death-dirge and fall. The Farewell to the Cataract.

A selection from the poem by Bulkley chosen by Dow:

Spirit of the Fall

What towering form erects its figure here,
To check the footsteps of inquiring man,
As if it were a sentry at his post,
To guard with faithfulness the narrow pass?
It is the Rock of Manitou, the Pinnacle
On which the gloomy spirit of the Fall,
Sits brooding o’er the tide below, that shows
His fearful frowns reflected in its wave,
Or feels the movements of his busy hand
Searching its depths and torturing its course,
Till its full currents reel in conscious pain!

How high the Water-God his altar rears
With jagged summits from a liquid base!
How green the moss that decks its time-worn crown,
Like youthful forms that cluster round old age !
From yonder cliff, impending o’er the stream
With shadowy fringes of the evergreen,
This massive pile, like an inverted cone,
Seems hurled in other years with giant hand,
Upon the kindred masses dashed below!

Source: Rev. C.H.A. Bulkley.  Niagara. A Poem. New York: Leavitt, Trow & Co., 1848

Spirit of the Fall is also published in Rhine, Alice Hyneman. Niagara Park illustrated : original and selected, descriptions, poems and adventures. New York: Niagara Pub. Co., 1885; New York: William T. Hunter, 1888

Ode to a School by Stephanie Vigh Nielsen

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The Former Lundy’s Lane School, April 2021. Photo courtesy of Robert Nielsen

There’s an old school in Niagara
It’s located on Lundy’s Lane
With front and back roof dormers
And windows of diamond pane

Ornate with decorative detail
In classical Edwardian times
Clean lines with a portico entrance
And oh how that old bell could chime

Just a short walk to Green’s Corners
I was only six at the time
And my heart would fill with excitement
As I joined my friends in the line

My teacher was tall and stern
Her hair tied up in a bun
But all the students loved her
Because she made learning so much fun.

Alphabet cards on the chalk board
Magic letters that turned into words
Oh the joy I felt when I realized
I had entered a whole new world

Fun with Dick and Jane readers,
Weekly spelling games
Reciting multiplication tables
In my school on Lundy’s Lane.

The old school is looking sad now
Wooden planks are covering those panes
Chipped paint and looking very unkempt
That sweet school on Lundy’s Lane.

Remember the importance of preservation
As our dear Ruth Redmond said
She valued the importance of history
It will last long after we’re dead.

Cherish our history forever
Like Europeans have done throughout time
Please can we all join together
And save this old school of mine.

Source: The author, 2021

Visit Stephanie Vigh Nielsen’s Niagara Proud website

Visit the City of Niagara Falls’ Heritage Property Listing for the Lundy’s Lane School

Niagara Falls by Charles Antonio

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Horseshoe Falls and American Falls with Rainbow and Heavy Mist, August 2005. Photo by Alina Rashid. Courtesy of Niagara Falls Public Library

The mist climbs Niagara as it roars at you
The waters drop into the basin mixed brew
The liquid flows to the whirlpool down river
Becoming a churning rapid making you quiver
This natural wonder continues night and day
You relax at its edge feeling its spray
A rainbow appears as the sun peeks through
Your heart pulsates gazing on this view
Nature’s beauty and senses seem to connect
This wondrous sight you will not forget.

February 14, 2011

Source: Charles Antonio, April 2021

Mr. Antonio was born and raised in Niagara Falls. He loves the beauty of the Falls itself and the City in which he resides. His previous profession, a structural draftsman, allowed him to assist with local festivals, movie productions, building additions and industrial plant construction.  He was a Chair of the East Niagara Housing Authority,  Chair of the City of Niagara Falls Committee of Adjustment, and a Unemployment Insurance Appeals Judge. The vast wealth of local knowledge he has accumulated over the years has given him a keen eye for nature and our local fauna and flora. His hobbies, which include woodcarving, painting, sketching, interior design and poetry are a reflection of his passion and love of the Niagara Region.

Niagara by J.W. Weidemeyer

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Weidemeyer’s Admiral Butterfly (Limenitis weidemeyerii), named after noted lepidopterist John William Weidemeyer

ERE beings with soul and mind arrayed
Their earthly habitation had made—
When the Saurian monsters in agony lay,
Stricken by doom, on their beds of clay—
Like a meteor, illuming some desolate land,
Niagara leaped from its Maker’s hand !

Once spirits of beauty that manhood enslave
At nightfall were seen on its emerald wave;
In seraphic strain they whispered a song
Whose rapturous concords to Eden belong.
They hunted the thicket with spear and with bow,
Or called the Naiades from their caverns below,
To search for the living trophies that sink
In the green gulf of water that flows o’er the brink

A fairy isle trembles on the cataract’s crest,
Beloved by the waves, that hold it compressed;
And, like worshipping Magii, rainbows arise,
’Neath these acres of paradise dropped from the skies.
Transition and death now dwell in the smile
Of the white, foaming rapids that sweep past the isle;
Could their waters but cleanse the deep stain of man’s sin,
How many a diver the torrent would win!

In vain the Ice-king, whose touch is death,
Would stem the wild current, with Arctic breath;
With slow-creeping gait, and palsying shock,
Though he bind the cataract fast to the rock,
Long ere the green blade has pierced the ground,
Sunbeams dispel the enchantment around,
And the waters rush on to the far distant sea,
As if wandering their way to eternity.

Source: J.W. Montclair. Real and Ideal: A Collection of Metrical Compositions. New York: F. Hart, Printer, 1864.

N.B. – J.W. Montclair is a pseudonym for John William Weidemeyer.

Read about Weidemeyer here

Celebrating National Poetry Month With a Niagara Falls Flavour by Alison Langley

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Daffodils in Front of the Illuminated American Falls. Photograph by Andrew Porteus

Alison Langley, a reporter for the Niagara Falls Review has written an article about Andrew Porteus and the Niagara Falls Poetry Project to help celebrate National Poetry Month.  The article has been reprinted below. See the original article here

As the former manager of adult reference and information services at Niagara Falls Public Library, Andrew Porteus would often come across poems about Niagara Falls in unusual places.

After reading a poem about the Falls in an old book about engineering, he realized its audience was extremely limited, other than people who came across it by accident like he did.

To that end, he copied the poem and created a file dedicated to Niagara Falls poetry. Each time he came across another poem, he’d add it to the file.

More than 20 years after discovering that obscure poem in an engineering book, the file now includes more than 500 poems relating to Niagara Falls.

And, there’s lots more out there yet to be discovered, said Porteus, a retired librarian who recently completed his master of arts degree at Brock University.

“… there are still a ton out there,” he said.

His Niagara Falls Poetry Project can be found online at niagarapoetry.ca. The site receives between 750 and 1,500 hits monthly.

The project has become part of the poetry in place movement, which highlights poems that give the reader a sense of a location as opposed to a concept.

“I know one person is using the site for the university project and I suspect some university instructors are finding it and students are looking at it as well,” Porteus said.

The substantial collection includes what is believed to be the first poem to reference Niagara Falls, “Untitled” by Le Sievr de la Franchise, from 1604.

The catalogue includes “Niagara, Seen on a Night in November” by Adelaide Crapsey.

How frail

Above the bulk

Of crashing water hangs,

Autumnal, evanescent, wan,

The moon.

Crapsey is known as the inventor of the cinquain, a poem of five short lines of unequal length. She died in 1914 and her poems were published posthumously.

Porteus regularly updates the site and welcomes submissions of original poems about Niagara Falls, and from Niagara poets.

Recent additions include C.D. Onofrio’s “Italian Angel of Gelato,” inspired by the Italian Ice Cream shop on Victoria Avenue, and F.J. Doucet’s “My Grandmother was a Waitress in Niagara Falls.”

Porteus has also added an interactive map marking specific locations linked with specific poems. Each “pin” on the map includes a poem or two and some interesting facts about the area.

There’s also a Poetry Walking Tour of Niagara Falls app available on the site.

“It makes for a more interesting experience of the Falls if you are interested in poetry,” Porteus said.

“It’s sort of combining different aspects of the Falls together to make one experience.”

April is National Poetry Month, and Porteus encourages people to check out the site to celebrate poetry and its important place in Canadian culture.

National Poetry Month began in the U.S. in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets.

Members handed out copies of T.S. Elliot’s “The Waste Land,” which begins “April is the cruelest month …” to people waiting in line to mail their tax returns.