Farewell to Niagara by Lydia Huntley Sigourney

sigourney farewell
The Horse-shoe Falls (From the Canadian Side) by W. H. Bartlett, 1842. Courtesy of Niagara Falls Public Library

My spirit grieves to say, Farewell to thee,
Oh beautiful and glorious!
                                  Thou dost robe
Thyself in mantle of the coloured mist,
Most lightly tinged, and exquisite as thought,
Decking thy forehead with a crown of gems
Woven by Gods right hand.
                                  Hadst thou but wrapped
Thy brow in clouds, and swept the blinding mist
In showers upon us, it had been less hard
To part from thee.    But there thou art, sublime
In noon-day splendour, gathering all thy rays
Unto their climax, green, and fleecy white,
And changeful tinture, for which words of man
Have neither sign nor sound, until to breathe
Farewell in agony.    For we have roamed
Beside thee, at our will, and drawn thy voice
Into our secret soul, and felt how good
Thus to be here, until we half implored,
While long in wildering ecstasy we gazed,
To build us tabernacles, and behold
Always thy majesty.
                                  Fain would we dwell
Here at thy feet, and be thy worshipper,
And from the weariness and dust of earth
Steal evermore away.   Yea, were it not
That many a care doth bind us here below,
And in each care, a duty, like a flower,
Thorn-hedged, perchance, yet fed with dews of heaven,
And in each duty, an enclosed joy,
Which like a honey-searching bee doth sing, —
And were it not, that ever in our path
Spring up our planted seeds of love and grief,
Which we must watch, and bring their perfect fruit
Into our Masters garner, it were sweet
To linger here, and be thy worshipper,
Until deaths footstep broke this dream of life.

Source:  Sigourney, Lydia H. Scenes In My Native Land. London: W. Tweedie, 1844. p. 236-237.

 

En El Niágara by Rafael Pombo

pombo
Portrait of Rafael Pombo, 1833-1912
Dedicada en prenda de respetuosa admiración y de profundo reconocimiento a la señora María Juana Christie de Serrano.


    ¡Ahí estás otra vez. . . ! El mismo hechizo
que años ha conocí, monstruo de gracia,
blanco, fascinador, enorme, augusto,
sultán de los torrentes, 
muelle y sereno en tu sin par pujanza. 
¡Ahí estás siempre el Niágara! Perenne 
en tu extático trance, en ese vértigo 
de voluntad tremenda, sin cansarte 
nunca de ti, ni el hombre de admirarte. 

    ¡Cómo cansarse! La belleza activa, 
la siempre viva, porque siempre pura, 
no puede fatigar. Hija perfecta 
sin medio humano, del excelso fiat 
que perpetuaron leyes inviolables 
en su incesante acción; mimada hermana 
del firmamento, de la luz, del aire; 
huésped no expulsado del edén perdido; 
esta hermosura es creación constante 
y original, donde trasciende el soplo 
de su autor soberano. Algo nos dice 
que allí está Dios: el néctar de embeleso 
y de reparación que a un tiempo mana. 
Al contemplarla, en nuestro fondo bullen 
los dormitados gérmenes divinos, 
cual hierve al sol el ánima viviente 
de la naturaleza; y surge ansioso 
el amor de familia, el de la eterna 
e indisoluble; y como al mar la gota 
emancipada al fin de térreos lazos, 
como del pecho de la madre el niño, 
mudos de íntimo gozo nos prendemos 
en comunión de eternidad con ella. 
¿Podrá Dios fatigar? ¡Ah! en lo que hastía 
hay encanto letal, triste principio 
de inercia, hostil a Dios, germen de muerte, 
gangrena de las almas secuestradas 
de su raudal vivífico... 
                Mas ¿dónde 
mi mente descendió? Llámala al punto. 
¡Oh Niágara! y en ti la imagen vea
de las almas triunfantes; mire al héroe 
sublime en su martirio; al genio mire 
sereno en la conciencia de su fuerza. 
Distráeme, diviérteme, museo 
de cataratas, fábrica de nubes; 
mar desfondado al peso de tus hondas; 
columnas que un omnipotente Alcides 
descolgó del Olimpo, entre dos vastos 
Mediterráneos, piélagos de un mundo.
   Continue reading "En El Niágara  by Rafael Pombo" 

Niagara In Spring by William Carey Richards

richards niagara
Undated Postcard Showing Niagara Falls in Springtime. Courtesy Niagara Falls Public Library.

Oh, could I gaze forever on thy face,
Unwearied still, thou matchless waterfall,
Whose twining spells of majesty and grace
My ardent sense bewilder and enthrall!

In all my moods thy charms puissant sway
Enforce my will their master-spell to own;
My heart leaps at thy voice — or grave or gay —
And every chord is vibrant to thy tone.

So many years I have come back to stand,
With reverent awe, before thy glorious shrine —
So close and long thy lineaments Ive scanned —
It seemed thou shouldst grow something less divine.

I know thy face, its shifting glooms and smiles,
As cloud or sun upon thy bosom lies;
Thy wrathful guise, thy witching rainbow wiles
Can wake no more for me the sweet surprise.

I know thy voice — its terror and its glee
Have in my ear so oft their changes rung;
Nor forest winds nor anthems of the sea
Speak to my soul with more familiar tongue.

My feet have scaled thy storm-scarred battlements,
And pressed the moss most emerald with thy tears;
And still profaned thy lucent caverns, whence
The neophyte comes pale with ghostly fears. Continue reading “Niagara In Spring by William Carey Richards”

Winter Falls by Rich Roach

sleep niagara
Niagara Falls in Winter, 1890s. Photo courtesy of Niagara Falls Public Library

Sleep, sleep, Niagara, deep beneath the ice;
    Your native thunder quell, that peace may reign
About your mammoth frame; let calm entice
    Your weary waters, evermore a fane
For weary hearts to perch, spellbound in awe:
    Carve caverns from the layered ice and snow,
That out the gap you breathe both rough and raw;
    Along your sides let chilly north winds blow,
And cystallize the limbs of every tree
    Guarding the lofty borders of your brim;
Let famished seagulls from your chill face flee,
    That nothing stay the zealous eye to skim
        Your placid whiteness, lost in rare displays
        Of wonder, dreamy scenes for all to praise

Source: The author, 2001.

Great Cataract Sublime by Rich Roach

great cataract sublime
Aerial view of the Niagara River Whirlpool and Rapids. Photograph by Andrew Porteus
Niagara Falls, great cataract sublime,
    Whose mists, like dragons, curl against the sky;
O thund’ring god, whose movement over time
    Has gouged a mile-wide path, where seagulls fly
And trace your giant steps, each twist and turn,
    Down yawning gorge to where the whirlpool boils
Beneath the dancing rapids — wild they churn,
    Twisting, as round great rocks the river coils —
Why now the tears? The thousand voices sighing?
    Do you not hear the reverent silence? Awe
And fear upon each frozen tongue? The dying
    Exhalations of spirits, which, like straw
        Before the winds, are strewn to airy silence?
        You hear, you see, with pity not defiance.

Source: The author, 2001.