Niagara Falls 



1894 Smooth, lustrous, awful, lovely curve of peril; 



G,lder While far below the bending sea of beryl 



Thunder and tumult — whence a billowy spray 

 Enclouds the day. 



II 



What dream is hers? No dream hath wrought that spell! 



The long waves rise and sink; 



Pity that virgin soul on passion's brink, 



Confronting Fate — swift, unescapable, — 



Fate, which of nature is the intent and core, 



And dark and strong as the steep river's pour, 



Cruel as love, and wild as love's first kiss! 



Ah, God! the abyss. 



1894 H. E. J. "A poem of the elements," an appreciation of Niagara: 



H. E. J. August, 1891. (Critic, Sept. 22, 1894. 25:181.) 



A critic of Niagara descriptions. The author found noble dignity 

 and repose but nothing of awe, terror, desolation, or death in the Falls. 

 The deafening roar did not exist for him. In his own words, " the fullest 

 and most buoyant life, the sprightliest animation, the gayest colors and the 

 loudest song — these are the language of that poem of the elements we 

 call Niagara." 



1894 McCann, John Earnest and Saltus, Francis S. Niagara. 



McCann (McClure, Oct., 1894. 3:436.) 



& Saltus ' 



A short poem, written in 1888 and reprinted by special request. Has 

 real literary merit. 



Since the first dawn, thro' vague and unknown ways, 

 Between the icy north and where I fall, 

 From lands beyond the pole, from where brooks call, 



And sing responsive to the cold birds' lays, 



I glide, I leap, I bound, thro' nights and days; 

 I rush, I rave, I roar, and I appall — 

 Ay ! to the very heights of heaven's wall — 



The hosts that reverential glances raise. 



804 



