Niagara Falls 



i960 O perilous bridge 'mid gusts of dazzling pearl, 



Or where a diamond storm enshrouds the way, 

 Thou seem'st like Life a span 'twixt Day and Night; 

 For tho eternal rainbows crown the rocks, 

 Halos of Hope, charmed circles of high Faith, 

 Commanding entrance through the chasms of Doubt 

 To deeps of nobler knowledge and soul-strength, 

 Yet all this beauty overwhelms the mind 

 By clash of contrast with our littleness. 

 Alas! for Man, the Universal Dwarf, 

 Slave of Heredity, Waif of Circumstance, 

 Cringer to Custom, Toy of Temperament, 

 Rock-chained by Self, a vain Promethean child ! 

 E'en in his loftiest hour, Niagara, 

 Facing thy vastness, Nature's most sublime 

 Picture and Poem, can he read a line 

 Or track a tint back to its hidden source 

 Or catch the secret meaning of one tone 

 'Mid the melliflous thunders which arise 

 Eternal from thy flowers of prismy foam; 

 Fadeless, though falling ever — never quite 

 Lost in the looming, luminous Infinite? 

 Hush ! Let us not be shadowed or dismayed 

 By aught of greatness in the outer sphere, 

 By sense of Man's collective littleness, 

 Or any conscious nothingness of self I 

 In Life, e'en as in Art, Perfection, Size, 

 Is of all sizes: — and the first, firm step 

 In true development and lasting strength 

 Must ever be the brave acknowledgment 

 Of weakness or of lack. 



So, Heart of Mine, 

 Oh ! Heart of All, stand up and take the sun ! 

 Seize, for 'tis thine, thy Sovereignty of Light ! 



820 



