Music — Poetry — Fiction 



And gazing on thy pomp of rising incense; 1839 



With mimic semblance of some mighty temple Gnnfield 



He loves to grace thee, and thy shaggy borders 



Fantastically silvers o'er with frost-work; 



Pranking with icy pinnacles and pillars 



The walls of thy magnificent Cathedral: 1 



But ne'er Cathedral owned a crypt so dreadful 



As thine, o'er-arch'd with such a thundering deluge. 



And still the thunder of the eternal anthem, 

 And still the column of ascending incense, 

 Shall draw remotest pilgrims to thy worship, 

 Shall hold them breathless in thy sovereign presence, 

 And lost to all that they before had look'd on ; 

 Yea, conjur'd up by strong imagination, 

 Shall sound in ears that never heard the music, 

 Shall gleam in eyes that ne'er beheld the vision ; 

 Till the great globe, with all that it inherits, 

 Shall vanish, — like that cloud of ceaseless incense, — 

 In thunder, — like that falling world of waters. 



Oh peerless paragon of earthly wonders ! 

 Embodying, in their most intense expression, 

 Beauty, sublimity, might, music, motion, 

 To fix and fill at once eye, ear, thought, feeling; 

 And kindling, into unknown exaltation, 

 Dread and delight, astonishment and rapture! 

 Sure God said, let there be a NIAGARA ! 

 And, lo, a NIAGARA heard His bidding; 

 And glimmer'd forth a sparkle of His glory, 

 And whisper'd here the thunder of Omnipotence! 

 Clifton, April, 1839. 



1 Mrs. Jameson describes its weighty magnificence. 



1840 



CLARK, WlLLIS GAYLORD. (Poem). (In Holley, W., Niagara; 1840 

 its history and geology, incidents and poetry. . . . N. Y. Buffalo, Clark 

 Toronto.: 1872. Pp. 161-162.) 



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