Niagara Falls 



1834 While by the lone lamp's trembling light, 



Sigoumey As blazed the hearth-stone clear and bright, 



O'er Homer's page he hung, 

 Or Maro's martial numbers scanned, 

 For classic lore of many a land 



Flowed smoothly o'er his tongue. 

 Oft with rapt eye, and skill profound, 

 He woke the entrancing viol's sound, 



Or touched the sweet guitar, 

 Since heavenly music deigned to dwell 

 An inmate in his cloistered cell, 



As beams the solemn star 

 All night, with meditative eyes, 

 Where some lone rock-bound fountain lies. 



As through the groves with quiet tread, 

 On his accustomed haunts he sped, 

 The mother-thrush unstartled sung 

 Her descant to her callow young, 

 And fearless o'er his threshold prest 

 The wanderer from the sparrow's nest ; 

 The squirrel raised a sparkling eye, 

 Nor from his kernel cared to fly, 

 As passed that gentle hermit by ; 

 No timid creature shrank to meet 

 His pensive glance serenely sweet; 

 From his own kind, alone, he sought 

 The screen of solitary thought. 

 Whether the world too harshly prest, 

 Its iron o'er a yielding breast, 

 Or taught his morbid youth to prove 

 The pang of unrequited love, 

 We know not, for he never said 

 Aught of the life that erst he led. 

 710 



