Music — Poetry — Fiction 



1842 



APPLETON, THOMAS GOLD. Goat Island, Niagara. (In his Faded 1842 

 leaves. Bost. : Roberts Bros. 1872. P. 33.) Appleton 



Peace and perpetual quiet are around. 

 Upon the erect and dusky file of stems, 

 Sustaining yon far roof, expelling sound. 

 Through which the sky sparkles (a rain of gems 

 Lost in the forest's depth of shade), the sun 

 At times doth shoot an arrow of pure gold, 

 Flecking majestic trunks with hues of dun, 

 Veining their barks with silver, and betraying 

 Secret initials tied in true love knots ; 

 Of hearts no longer through green alleys straying. 

 But stifled in the world's distasteful grots. 

 The silence is monastic, save in spots 

 Where heaves a glimmer of uncertain light, 

 And rich wild tones enchant the woodland night. 

 June, 1842. 



Appleton, Thomas Gold. Niagara. (In his Faded leaves. 

 Bost.: Roberts Bros. 1872. Pp. 27-30.) 



Though the dusk has extinguished the green 

 And the glow of the down-falling silver, 

 In my heart I prefer this subdued, 

 Cathedral-like gloom on the water; 

 When the fancy capriciously wills, 

 Nor loves to define or distinguish, 

 As a dream which enchants us with fear, 

 And scarce throbs the heart unaffrighted. 

 With a color and a voice of its own 

 I behold this wondrous creature 

 Move as a living thing, 

 And joyous with joy Titanic. 

 Its brothers in sandstone are locked, 

 Yet from their graves speak to it. 

 It sings to them as it moves, 

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