Music — Poetry — Fiction 



Still with sad heart his requiem pour, 1834 



Amid the cataract's ceaseless roar, 

 And bid one tear of pitying gloom 

 Bedew that meek enthusiast's tomb. 



SlGOURNEY, Mrs. LYDIA H. Niagara. (In Barham, William, 

 Descriptions of Niagara ; selected from various travellers ; 

 Gravesend: n. d. Pp. 1 1 1-1 17.) 



Prose and poem description of the Falls. 



Up to the Table-Rock, where the great flood 

 Reveals its fullest glory. To the verge 

 Of its appalling battlement draw near, 

 And gaze below. Or, if thy spirit fail, 

 Creep stealthily, and snatch a trembling glance 

 Into the dread abyss. 



What there thou seest 

 Shall dwell forever in thy secret soul, 

 Finding no form of language. 



The vexed deep, 

 Which from the hour that Chaos heard the voice 

 M Let there be light," hath known no pause nor rest, 

 Communeth through its misty cloud with Him 

 Who breaks it on the wheel of pitiless rock, 

 Yet heals it every moment. Bending near, 

 Mid all the terror, as an angel-friend, 

 The rainbow walketh in its company 

 With perfect orb full-rounded. Dost thou cling 

 Thus to its breast, a Comforter, to give 

 Strength in its agony, thou radiant form, 

 Born of the trembling tear-drop, and the smile 

 Of sun, or glimmering moon? 



Yet from a scene 

 So awfully sublime, our senses shrink, 

 And fain would shield them at the solemn base 

 Of the tremendous precipice, and glean 

 Such hallowed thoughts as blossom in its shade. 

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