Niagara

I.

Grandest of Nature's works, her wildest wreck, 2Or stateliest shrine! What ear, Niagara, 2Thrills not? what eye unstartled shall survey Thy loud and raging waters, as they break Full o'er the fearful precipice, and whelm 2Thy sea-green Naiads in the gulf below? Through many a stormy lake, and boundless realm, 2And well-fought field thy winding currents flow, Watering the woods, and herds, and creatures rude, 2That haunt thy brink their hasty draught to steal; 2And now for toil or pastime, float or keel, Smooth as a glass expands th' united flood; That youth deluded by the flattering gleam, Might trust with arm secure the tameness of thy stream.

II.

But, lo! the rocks—and, like a maniac moved, 2At once thy rage begins, and all around 2Vex'd by th' obstreperous waves thy shores resound; Check'd by the steadfast reef, as one reproved, More fierce the torrent raves, and flings his froth 2Aloft, and tosses on his flinty bed. 2Ill fares the wretch, who there by night misled, Strives with strain'd oar against its matchless wrath: For close before him sinks the dreadful steep; 2O'er which th' Herculean stream shall quickly hurl 2Him and his struggling bark, with headlong whirl, Dash'd on the turrets of the craggy deep, Many a dark fathom down. The stunning roar Ontario's ramparts shakes, and Erie's distant shore.

III.

For as th' incessant and ear-rending clang, 2When war's red bolt conflicting navies urge, Rolls round the brows and caverns, that o'erhang 2The main, and mingles with the plunging surge: Or as 'mongst Alpine or Ceraunian peaks 2His angry trump the midnight thunder blows; 2And rocks, and vales, and woods, and towering snows, Fling round the restless peal, while o'er them breaks From all heav'ns windows sluiced the rushing shower: 2Such noises loud and deep for ever rave Among those foaming waters, as they pour 2Down on that wrathful and tormented cave, Their smouldering crater, in whose ample bound As in some caldron huge they burst and boil around.

IV.

Up flies the steaming spray, and on the flood 2Sheds the dire umbrage of its winding shroud; 2Yet ere to heaven it wreathes its hoary cloud, Far off conspicuous, in her wildest mood Sweet Iris wantons there, and sketches gay 2Many a bright segment of her tinted bow, 2That float their moment till the breezes blow The draft and shadowy tablet both away. Now stand we on the thin and dizzy ledge 2Self-poised and pendent o'er the black abyss, And lean, and listen by the torrent's edge, 2And watch its fall, and hear it roar and hiss, Like serpent foul whereof old sages sing, Or Hell's divan transformed to hail their venturous king.

V.

Descend we next to where the beetling clifts 2Hang their high cornice o'er the margent steep, 2Whose uncouth slope their crumbling fragments heap, Sole track to yon dark portal, that uplifts In gothic guise its pointed crown, and leads 2To the dread cloister, in whose vaulted groin 2The shelving beds and gushing billows join, And rock and river blend their arched heads. There crawl the slimy reptiles of the deep, 2Glazing th' obnoxious path, and dimly seen 2By the dull lantern of that drizzling skreen; Through which day's beams with faint refraction peep, A baleful radiance pale, that gives the night Perplexing gleams obscure, the shades of tortured light.

VI.

Press not too far thy hardy search, nor trust 2The doubtful chambers of that untried maze: 2Know'st thou what base its leaning wall upstays? What floods lie hid behind? what treacherous crust Roofs the blind chasm, that cracks beneath thy tread? 2What blights may blast thee, what sub-aqueous sound 2May mock thy echoing steps, thy sense astound? Or tempt thee where some rash adventurer dead Lies wasting unentomb'd? mark, what a blast 2Bursts from the chilling entrance! storm and shower 2Breathe stern forbiddance from the jealous bower: As if the demon of that cataract vast, Sole anarch there, abhorr'd that tongue should tell That mortal sight should pierce the secrets of his cell.

VII.

But now the Charon of the nether stream 2Waves his light oar, and wafts us o'er the tide. 2With staggering step we scale the rugged side, Fast by yon lofty ridge; o'er whose broad beam With stealthy lapse at first the glassy plane 2In one bright sheet descends, then streaming all 2With tresses green, that whiten as they fall, Dash'd to ten thousand dews and dusts of rain, Breaks on the crags beneath, its rugged floor, 2The ruins of its rage; through whose hoarse caves 2And countless crannies forced the foaming waves, 'Scaped their Tarpeian pitch, with fresh uproar Rush headlong down, and deeper as they swell The mixt majestic choir, that shakes that wondrous dell.

VIII.

Between the branches of the horned flood 2With shade of loftiest growth and sunny smile, 2Commingling graced a cool sequester'd isle, Crowns the high steep, and from its echoing wood Proclaims the tumults of the restless vale 2Far round, and calm as Dian's argent brow 2Brush'd by the clouds, o'erlooks the storm below. There many a stranger woos the breathing gale, Worn with his toilsome ramble: there, they say, 2Stern Winter oft his shining armoury rears, 2Framed in his icy forge; with crystal spears And diamond lances hangs each bending spray, Each trunk with mail, or helm, or buckler bright, By man's slow toils unmatched, the fabric of a night.

IX.

Back o'er the bridge, which daring art has thrown 2Wide o'er the brawling pass (whose yesty streams 2Flash through each crevice of the dancing beams) We haste: the sleepless torrent hurrying on Tow'rds its high leap, and whirling on its way 2Th' uprooted pine and oak. The scaly herds 2Against it tire their powerless helms: the birds Of strongest flight, down stooping for their prey On that disastrous current, rise no more. 2Caught by the liquid hurricane they strain 2Their ineffectual wings, and flap in vain; With screams unnatural tow'rds th' increasing roar. Forced on at length in silence down they go, And glut th' insatiate gorge, that yawns and yells below.

X.

There lifeless oft the wanderers of the wave 2In glittering shoals are seen; there sylvan stores, 2Swoln beasts, and fractured beams, which to their shores Wreck'd from those fatal heights the waters lave, Or waft promiscuous down, where now between 2Their towering banks, far from the wrath behind, 2Hurrying as if dismay'd and dark they wind Their deep contracted deluge.—Pregnant scene! Wherein fall'n power its own sad act may trace; 2Power, that by bounteous heaven from obscure source 2Advanced, with boundless rule and headlong course Long flows; by ills at times, the rocks of grace, Check'd, not chastised, still pours its fortunes on, Wherewith the world resounds, and topples from its throne.

XI.

A turbid solitude succeeds, uncheer'd 2By Fame's retiring trump, that loud no more, 2But makes despair more joyless; as the roar Of yon high-falling flood remotely heard, Saddens the troubled stream, that groans below. 2There, save that lonely skiff, no swelling sail 2Leans her coy bosom from the wanton gale; Lest with its eddying ebb her helpless prow The refluent tide should seize, and drift above 2To th' howling base of that pernicious steep, 2Plunged in its whelming shower, who knows how deep? Or whirl'd how long upon its watery wheel! In the dark dungeon of that hideous cove; Whence scarce the buoyant Muse retrieves her vent'rous keel.

XII.

Niagara, such art thou: to equal thee, 2What are the brooks of Wales, or statelier Clyde, 2Or Anio, or Velino, or the tide That shoots the slopes of Nile? thy breadth a sea, Thy shock an earthquake, and thy awful voice 2The sound of many waters. Grand and bold Columbia thus, the child of Nature's choice, 2Scales all her wonders to the Rhodian mould. Her lakes are oceans, every stream a bay, 2Wide through her frame its branching artery throws: Her mountains kiss the moon: her sapient sway 2A beauteous belt hath wrought, whose ties enclose Tribes without end, realm after realm embraced In Freedom's opening arms, the savage and the waste.