Poetry of and about Niagara Falls & the Niagara River – the waterfalls, the city, the history, the stunters, and everything else Niagara
A scene so vast, so wildly grand,
May well a mortal’s mind amaze;
For even the swift wing’d angel band,
On Mercy’s errand, stop to gaze.
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.
“It is announced that Oscar Wilde was also disappointed with Niagara”
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.
‡‡Will it be a Niagara of wheel-pits and tail-races and factory wastes ? J. Horace McFarland
YE VENERABLE WATERS ! that declaim
‡‡Of hoar Antiquity and deeds remote,
‡‡And from the hollow of that thundrous throat
Breath’st thought to put our shallow schemes to shame !
Before the Norsemen or Columbus came
‡‡Westward across th’ untried Atlantic wave ;
Ay, ere the Red Sea saw the guiding Flame
‡‡That led the hosts of Israel, thou didst rave
With thy eternal tongue of fuming waters !
‡‡And shall the mongering hand of heedless men
‡‡With scornful touch thy loveliness disdain ?
Arise ! ye beauty-loving sons and daughters !
‡‡The Sovereign Spirit of this vocal glen
‡‡Shall give you thanks out of his awful fane !
Source: Arthur John Lockhart. The Birds of the Cross, and Other Poems. Winterport, Me.: C.R. Lougee, 1909.
Lockhart also wrote under the name “Pastor Felix”
I love to experience the wind at Chippawa
whenever the Westerly blows strong.
How it presses back the eager boughs.
How it scuffs the tops of the water crests
that so mark the dark river’s frown.
How it seeks to scour this single bridge
that spans the narrows still.
How it empties itself where the Niagara begins.
How it sweeps and then swoops and then curls…
How it harbors all my longing
when it enters the cataract’s pull.
How it soars above the majestic gorge.
How it disperses the spray of a rainbow arc
before flying headlong toward the whirlpool of fate;
there to add to the mix of the new with the old
in a breach as endless as time can permit.
How it encourages joy from where ever it dwells
to flavor one’s hope, one’s heart, and one’s dream.
How it cleanses my spirit.
How it clings to my will.
Pleasant, peaceful, quiet river,
Limpid, constant, onward ever,
Gentle waters roll away ;
Calm as summer, bright as morning,
Not a look, or sign of warning,
Naught of danger dost thou say,
But gliding along, mild and strong,
To the Rapids.
Then
Sporting, murm'ring, tossing, splashing,
Storming, raving, crossing, dashing,
Troubled waters fret away ;
Hasting, pushing, staving, darting,
Islands mad'ning thee to parting,
Yet thy tumult cannot stay;
But, tearing along, mad and strong,
To the chasm.
Then
Curving, bending, bursting, breaking,
Sliding, leaping, rushing, quaking,
Flying waters dart away ;
Flashing, sparkling, wailing, rumbling,
O'er the brink an ocean tumbling,
To a world of foam and spray,
Fierce shooting along, proud and strong,
We see thee now
In
Stately grandeur, awful wonder,
Hear thy voice in terms of thunder;
Falling waters roar away,
Pouring, showering, misting, streaming,
Rob'd in rainbow colors beaming,
Deck'd by Sol's, or Luna's ray,
Swift plunging along, grand and strong,
To the bottom.
Then
Foaming, boiling, surging, thrashing,
Breaching, swelling, heaving, crashing,
Furious waters foam away,
Babbling, roaring, brawling, curling,
Gurgling, wailing, whisking, whirling ;
Fanciful thy currents play,
Still pressing along, bold and strong,
Dimpling, pouting.
Then
Gathering, kissing, whispering, hushing,
Panting, smiling, frisking, rushing,
Lovely waters roll away ;
Winding, eddying, purling, playing,
Lakeward still, and never staying,
Rustling on thy shining way ;
Free coursing along, calm and strong,
Soon to mingle
With
Ontario's tideless waters—
Long to be thy prison quarters ;
Noble river die away.
But I err, a poet's blunder,
Still I hear thy deaf'ning thunder ;
Here thou art, and here must stay
World-wide wonder, mighty, strong
Niagara !
Source: J.B. Waid. Variety : Poetry and Prose. Montreal : J. Lovell, 1872.
Waid, born 1804, was (self?)styled The Bard of Niagara