In 1848 the Table Rock Album; or, Sketches of the Falls and Scenery Adjacent was first published. This book contains selections from guest books kept at Table Rock, and includes poems, prose, and doggerel about various visitors’ reflections on Niagara Falls. All of the poems and doggerel are indexed here. Some of the more literary poems are also indexed on the Author Search and the Title Search pages.
Read George Holley’s explanation of the Table Rock Albums
This link takes you to the scanned version of the 1855 version of Table Rock Album from the Hathi Trust
Go to Table Rock Album author index page
Titles
Acrostic by Anonymous
A Dialogue by Crack Bard & No Bard. (Stupendous river — mighty cataract!)
A Dialogue by G. et al.
A Dialogue by H. Foote et al.
A Dialogue by S. & M.
A Dialogue by John Smyth (I should have surely written a poem here;)
A Dialogue by H. Sylvester et al. (I have been to “Termination Rock”)
A Dialogue by W.H.A. et al.(If it were not such a squally day)
A Dialogue by W.M. et al. (We are here today and gone tomorrow)
Discovery of Termination Rock by H. Sylvester (A young salmon, one day)
Eternal – Beautiful – Serene – Sublime by C. W. Rowland
Lines On Reading That The Only Words Spoken… by Anonymous
Lines Written in the Album of The Table Rock, Niagara Falls by George Menzies
Niagara by Willis Gaylord Clark
Niagara by Sarah Pratt
Niagara Falls by the 7th Earl of Carlisle (Lord Morpeth)
Niagara Falls by George William Frederick Howard (Lord Morpeth)
Niagara Falls by Lord Morpeth
Niagara To Its Visitors by H. Lindsay
On the Same by George Menzies
Religion by A.R.P.
Sacred Musings by Rev. John Dowling
Stanzas to Niagara by Maria del Occidente (Maria Gower Brooks)
To Niagara by Anonymous
To the Atheist by Anonymous
Untitled by A.B. (Let no one think ‘t is waste of time)
Untitled by A.H. (Sit by this roaring surge)
Untitled by Alethes (There’s grandeur in the lightning stroke)
Untitled by A.N.C. (Niagara ! to thee)
Untitled by Anonymous (Ages on ages Niagara has been pouring)
Untitled by Anonymous (All hail, Niagara! by thine awful noise,)
Untitled by Anonymous (As on the stormy beach I strayed)
Untitled by Anonymous (Boast not thy greatness, Yankees tall)
Untitled by Anonymous (Built by the golden sun, by day)
Untitled by Anonymous (Can man stop yonder cataracts in its course?)
Untitled by Anonymous (Fair Albion, smiling, sees her sons depart!)
Untitled by Anonymous (The Falls are all I fancied them;)
Untitled by Anonymous (Farewell, O Niagara! rolling in splendor,)
Untitled by Anonymous (Great is the mystery of Niagara’s waters)
Untitled by Anonymous (Hark, hark! ‘t is Niagara’s mighty roar)
Untitled by Anonymous (How poor! how very poor is praise from man!)
Untitled by Anonymous (I came to see)
Untitled by Anonymous (I stare with wonder, and alas!)
Untitled by Anonymous (I stood upon Niagara’s dizzy heights)
Untitled by Anonymous (If a fellow should slide down from off a slippery stick,)
Untitled by Anonymous (Look, look up; the spray is dashing)
Untitled by Anonymous (My thoughts are strange, sublime and deep,)
Untitled by Anonymous (My wife and I went round the Falls;)
Untitled by Anonymous (Next to the bliss of seeing Sarah,)
Untitled by Anonymous (Niagara, Niagara — careering in its might,)
Untitled by Anonymous (Niagara! thy waters were not made)
Untitled by Anonymous (On Table Rock we did embrace)
Untitled by Anonymous (“On to the curtained shrine — ay, pass within)
Untitled by Anonymous (Once on a time, with nought to do at home,)
Untitled by Anonymous (Roar away, mighty Fall)
Untitled by Anonymous (Roll on, Niagara! — amid thy roar,)
Untitled by Anonymous (A scene so vast, so wildly grand,)
Untitled by Anonymous (To view Niagara Falls one day,)
Untitled by Anonymous (Visitors, whene’er you wish)
Untitled by Anonymous (The wealth of Crœsus might have built)
Untitled by Anonymous (Ye prosing poets, who dull rhymes indite,)
Untitled by Anonymous (Ye who would feast your souls on heavenly food,)
Untitled by J. Austin (Down the steep an ocean pours)
Untitled by A.U.Z. (Land of my birth! land of the “stripes and stars”)
Untitled by Charlotte B______
Untitled by Bar-Tender
Untitled by Boz (Niagara – here Nature holds its sway,)
Untitled by Jefferson Bragg
Untitled by Brass Spurs and Brown Coat.
Untitled by N. Brooks (Ceaseless Niagara, shall thy thunder roll)
Untitled by Bryant (I came from Wall Street)
Untitled by C.O.B. (I’ll climb the mountain tops)
Untitled by C. H. Cope (Thou image of the Almighty One, as on thy wave I gaze)
Untitled by Cyrus (Here fools from all lands take of gazing their fill,)
Untitled by T.H. Dashiell (‘Twas great to speak a world from naught,)
Untitled by Charles Dickens (attributed to)
Untitled by Francis Duncan
Untitled by Thomas A. Dwyn
Untitled by E.J.H.
Untitled by Emphatic
Untitled by François.
Untitled by G.
Untitled by Oh!!
Untitled by Henry D. O’Reilly
Untitled by P.
Untitled by Jos. H. Patten
Untitled by Quiz
Untitled by R.C.
Untitled by B.T. Romaine
Untitled by John G. Saxe (See Niagara’s torrent pour over the height,)
Untitled by S.B.
Untitled by John B. Schunk
Untitled by Socrates (If I were annoyed with a termagant wife)
Untitled by S.P.B. (The waters of Niagara)
Untitled by E.S. Smith (Not in the forest vast, when winds awake)
Untitled by The Spirit of the Water (All ye perturbed souls, that go)
Untitled by Capting Ralph Stackpole (‘Tis did – my braggin’ days is o’er)
Untitled by W.A. Stevens (If Lovers’ Leaps were now the fashion)
Untitled by Solomon Swop (In foam, these Falls resemble ginger-pop)
Untitled by T.J.R. (Should cruel fate, by some unconquer’d spell,)
Untitled by T.S., jun. (Niagara’s mighty waters, rushing by)
Untitled by T.S.L. (Boast not thyself, Niagara,)
Untitled by Job Thornbury (All came to see whate’er was to be seen;)
Untitled by Annie Todd (I looked upon the water, and I smiled)
Untitled by H.B. Tuttle (Roll on, Niagara, as thou hast ever rolled,)
Untitled by C.W. Wilson (Mighty water! headlong tumbling)
Untitled by Y. (O! the wonderful Falls of Niagara)
Untitled by Zaney (Yes, traveler, go under)
Verses Written in the Album Kept at the Table Rock, Niagara Falls, During a Thunder Storm (1834 version) by George Menzies
George Holley, in his book The Falls of Niagara, 1883 states that: “Before the last fall of Table Rock, there stood upon it for many years a comfortable summer-house, where people could take refuge from the spray, look at the Falls, partake of luncheon, and procure guides and dresses to go under the sheet. In the sitting-room was a large round table, on which were placed a number of albums, as they were called. In these visitors could write whatever thoughts or sentiments might be suggested by the scene. With the grand reality before them but few persons attempted anything serious, by far the greater number adopting the facetious vein. It was emphatically light literature. One or two collections of it have been published, furnishing the reader with only a modicum of sense to an intolerable quantity of nonsense.”