Niagara Falls 



1842 I gaze till I am lost in what I gaze on; 



Sense flies ; self vanishes ; I mingle with, 

 And am a part of what I see and hear, — 

 The foaming torrents, and their deaf'ning roar! 

 At once elated and depressed, my soul 

 Drinks in the spectacle, conscious alike 

 Of weakness and power. 'Tis glorious! 

 I swear 'tis glorious! — Altar and fountain 

 Of the Eternal God ! — And there ye roll 

 Ye volumed waters, from age unchronicled, 

 To ages moveless in the womb of time! 

 Forever changing, yet fore'er the same : — 

 The same when broke the promise-bow of heaven, 

 To diadem your awful brow; the same, 

 When bent the red-man o'er your thundering fall : — 

 To be the same when earth and sky shall meet 

 In final wreck, and mute eternity 

 Forever reign ! O ! ye are wonderful, 

 Ye massive rocks ! Ye rapids in your rush ! 

 Ye trembling cataracts! thou boiling surge! 

 To heaven up-rising like the good man's prayer, 

 In the dark hour of tumult and dismay. 

 And O ! thou dread abyss in which are poured 

 Those endless torrents, that thy fountains lash 

 To tempest fury in their reckless fall, 

 O ! ye are dizzy to the mortal eye, 

 And terrible — most terrible to mortal sense ! 

 And the loud roar of your undying thunder ! 

 Ah! what is Man to your surpassing might? 

 And what are you, proud monuments of Time, 

 To Him who called you from the depths of nought, 

 And cast you careless from his plastic hand, 

 The playthings of Omnipotence ? 



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