Tag: Niagara Falls

Niagara by Moonlight by Anonymous

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The Silvery Moon Shone Down, and All Was Still. by George Baker. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress


Fair above all is Niagara by night,
When the pale moon drawn from the silent sky 
Meets with the thund’ring waters, as they fly 
Over the precipice’s dizzy height ;
Making them seem a mass of silver light. 
A molten silver sea that thunders by, 
In pomp as great, and equal majesty 
As once the ancient deluge in its might
Rush’d onwards ; spilling over mountain chain,
Plunging from scaur to bottomless abyss
Whence tortur’d waves leapt up in spray and rain,
Perhaps the moon fell on, as now on this ;
Mellowing the grandeur of the stormy main
To scene of peace and perfect loveliness.

Source:  Rhine, Alice Hyneman.  Niagara Park Illustrated :Original and Selected Descriptions, Poems and Adventures. New York : Niagara Pub. Co., 1885. Rhine did not include Niagara by Moonlight in the 1888 edition of this book.

Read about Alice Hyneman (Rhine) Sotheran

 

Goat Island, Niagara by Anonymous

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Wood Scenery at the Center of Goat Island by Ferdinand Richardt, ca 1855. Image courtesy of the Niagara Falls Public Library


Nature here in royal mood
Built herself a pleasaunce wood ; 
Built it on a frowning scaur 
High as mountain summits are, 
And around it made to flow 
Seas that fall in deeps below.

Near where waters fiercest sweep, 
Bade she blue-ey’d gentians creep ; 
Ferns spring up from mossy beds,
Snow-white daisies lift their heads, 
Briar rose and golden rod 
Set she thick in grassy sod.

Then her sovereign taste to please 
Planted out great forest trees ; 
Titians crown’d with myriad leaves 
Flaunting to the sun and breeze, 
Rooted them as in some scene, 
Quiet valleys roll between.

And her fancy to complete 
In this favorite wonder-seat, 
Stole she rainbows from the skies,
Bright with heav’ns resplendent dyes, 
Arched them o’er the raging Fall
Watch to keep above them all .

Source:  Rhine, Alice Hyneman.  Niagara Park Illustrated :Original and Selected Descriptions, Poems and Adventures. New York : Niagara Pub. Co., 1885. Rhine did not include this poem in the 1888 edition of this book.

Read about Alice Hyneman (Rhine) Sotheran

At Niagara (1911 version) by R. Nathaniel Dett

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Photograph of R. Nathaniel Dett from his The Album of a Heart


List to the sounding cat’ract’s thundering fall 
Or hark to spirit voices in the wind. 
For methinks sometimes that these strange moods 
Are Heaven-sent us by the jealous God 
Who’d thus remind us that no human love 
Can fully satisfy the longing heart. 
Perhaps an intimation sent to souls 
That he would speak somewhat, or nearer draw. 
Therefore I’ll to Him.   Talking waters, stars, 
The moon and whisp’ring trees shall make me wise 
In what it is He’d have my spirit know. 
And Nature singing from the earth and sky 
Shall fill me with such peace, that in the morn 
I’ll be the gay glad self you’ve always known. 
Urge me no further, now that you understand. 
A nobler friend than you none ever knew— 
But not this time.   Tonight I’ll be alone ; 
And if from moonlit valley God should speak 
Or in the tumbling waters sound a call 
Or whisper in the sighing of the wind, 
He’ll find me with an undivided heart 
Patient waiting to hear ; but Friend,—alone.

Source:  R. Nathaniel Dett. The Album of a Heart.  Jackson, Tenn. : Mocowat-Mercer, 1911.

About R. Nathaniel Dett

Click to see a longer version of this poem, published in 1923 

At the Grave of Abram Hull by Sarah Anne Curzon

Abram Hull was a captain in the United States Infantry, and was killed in the battle of Lundy’s Lane, 25th July, 1814, and interred on the battleground, near to the spot where he fell, with the fallen on both sides.  The battleground was consecrated as a cemetery, and is now kept in order by the Lundy’s Lane Historical Society.

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Headstone of Abraham Hull. Photo by James Lemon on Find a Grave

 

Not that thou wast an enemy do I desire
Thy grave shall be no mound of weeds or mire ;
My country’s enemies are mine, and I would fight
With tireless arm to guard her sacred right.
Not that thou wast an enemy and I forget
The fierce incursion—unforgiven yet.
But that thou wast a mother’s son, I’d keep,
For mother-love, thy bed in thy last sleep.
Lay e’er, my son, in stranger-land a foe,
I would some mother-breast should pity know,
Some kindly hand should smooth, as I do now,
His last long pillow, and upon his brow
Drop gentle tears for one so brave and young,
Nor leave, for enmity, a warrior’s dirge unsung.

Source: The Dominion Illustrated, 17th August 1889

Read about Abraham [Abram] Hull

Read about Sarah Anne Curzon

Read about the Battle of Lundy’s Lane

Read more poems about the War of 1812 in Niagara

Niagara by Horace P. Biddle

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Niagara Falls in Winter, ca. 1890. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress

Almighty God ! who sees the dew-drop fall.
And sends the rain that falls alike on all ;
Who pours the fountain from its secret source,
And guides the river in its onward course ;
Who parts the waters from the teeming land.
And holds the ocean in His mighty hand ;
Who states the tides and moves upon the deep,
To rouse the billow or to bid it sleep ;
Who deluged earth and covered mountains high,
Then set this token in the hallowed sky, — 
Here, by these waters, in their ceaseless flow,
Has fixed His covenant. Behold the Bow !
And while earth trembles ‘neath the mighty load,
Man sees the promise and the power of God !

Source:  Horace P. Biddle.  Poems.  New York: Hurd & Houghton, 1868

About Horace P. Biddle