Niagara Falls 



1834 The hapless youth they gained, and bore 



Sigoumey S ad to his own forsaken door : 



There watched his dog, with straining eye, 

 And scarce would let the train pass by, 



Save that with instinct's rushing spell, 

 Through the changed cheek's empurpled hue, 

 And stiff and stony form, he knew 

 The master he had loved so well. 

 The kitten fair, whose graceful wile 

 So oft had won his musing smile, 

 As round his slippered foot she played, 

 Stretched on his vacant pillow laid. 

 While strewed around, on board and chair, 



The last pluck'd flower, the book last read, 

 The ready pen, the page outspread, 

 The water-cruse, the unbroken bread, 

 Revealed how sudden was the snare 

 That swept him to the dead. 



And so he rests in foreign earth, 

 Who drew mid Albion's vales his birth ; 

 Yet let no cynic phrase unkind 

 Condemn that youth of gentle mind, 

 Of shrinking nerve and lonely heart, 

 And lettered lore, and tuneful art, 



Who here his humble worship paid 

 In that most glorious temple-shrine, 

 Where to the Majesty divine 



Nature her noblest altar made. 



No, blame him not, but praise the Power 

 Who in the dear, domestic bower, 

 Hath given you firmer strength to rear 

 The plant of love, with toil and fear, 

 The beam to meet, the blast to dare, 

 And like a faithful soldier bear; 

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