Niagara. A Poem/Niagara
NIAGARA.
I.
Grandest of Nature's works, her wildest wreck,Or stateliest shrine! What ear, Niagara,Thrills not? what eye unstartled shall surveyThy loud and raging waters, as they breakFull o'er the fearful precipice, and whelmThy sea-green Naiads a in the gulf below?Through many a stormy lake, b and boundless realm,And well-fought field c thy winding currents flow,Watering the woods, and herds, and creatures rude,That haunt thy brink their hasty draught to steal;And now for toil or pastime, float or keel,Smooth as a glass expands th' united flood; dThat 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,At once thy rage begins, and all aroundVex'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 frothAloft, and tosses on his flinty bed.Ill fares the wretch, e who there by night misled,Strives with strain'd oar against its matchless wrath:For close before him sinks the dreadful steep;O'er which th' Herculean stream f shall quickly hurlHim 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 g ramparts shakes, and Erie's distant shore.
III.
For as th' incessant and ear-rending clang,When war's red bolt conflicting navies urge,Rolls round the brows and caverns, that o'erhangThe main, and mingles with the plunging surge:Or as 'mongst Alpine or Ceraunian peaksHis angry trump the midnight thunder blows;And rocks, and vales, and woods, and towering snows,Fling round the restless peal, while o'er them breaksFrom all heav'ns windows sluiced the rushing shower:Such noises loud and deep for ever raveAmong those foaming waters, as they pourDown on that wrathful and tormented cave, hTheir 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 floodSheds the dire umbrage of its winding shroud;Yet ere to heaven it wreathes its hoary cloud, iFar off conspicuous, In her wildest moodSweet Iris k wantons there, and sketches gayMany a bright segment of her tinted bow,That float their moment till the breezes blowThe draft and shadowy tablet both away.Now stand we on the thin and dizzy ledge lSelf-poised and pendent o'er the black abyss,And lean, and listen by the torrent's edge,And watch its fall, and hear it roar and hiss, Like serpent foul m whereof old sages sing, Or Hell's divan transformed to hail their venturous king.
V.
Descend we next to where the beetling cliftsHang their high cornice o'er the margent steep,Whose uncouth slope their crumbling fragments heap,Sole track to yon dark portal, n that upliftsIn gothic guise its pointed crown, and leadsTo the dread cloister, in whose vaulted groinThe shelving beds and gushing billows join,And rock and river blend their arched heads.There crawl the slimy reptiles of the deep,Glazing th' obnoxious path, and dimly seenBy 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 trustThe doubtful chambers of that untried maze:Know'st thou what base its leaning wall upstays?What floods lie hid behind? what treacherous crustRoofs the blind chasm, that cracks beneath thy tread?What blights may blast thee, what sub-aqueous soundMay mock thy echoing steps, thy sense astound?Or tempt thee where some rash adventurer deadLies wasting unentomb'd? mark, what a blastBursts from the chilling entrance! storm and showerBreathe 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 oWaves his light oar, and wafts us o'er the tide.With staggering step we scale the rugged side,Fast by yon lofty ridge; o'er whose broad beamWith stealthy lapse at first the glassy plane pIn one bright sheet descends, then streaming allWith 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,The ruins of its rage; through whose hoarse cavesAnd countless crannies forced the foaming waves,'Scaped their Tarpeian pitch,q 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 floodWith shade of loftiest growth and sunny smile,Commingling graced a cool sequester'd isle, rCrowns the high steep, and from its echoing woodProclaims the tumults of the restless valeFar round, and calm as Dian's argent browBrush'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,Stern Winter oft his shining armoury s rears,Framed in his icy forge; with crystal spearsAnd 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,t which daring art has thrownWide o'er the brawling pass (whose yesty streamsFlash through each crevice of the dancing beams)We haste: the sleepless torrent hurrying onTow'rds its high leap, and whirling on its wayTh' uprooted pine and oak. The scaly herdsAgainst it tire their powerless helms: the birdsOf strongest flight, down stooping for their preyOn that disastrous current, rise no more.Caught by the liquid hurricane they strainTheir 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 waveIn glittering shoals are seen; there sylvan stores,Swoln beasts, and fractured beams, which to their shoresWreck'd from those fatal heights the waters lave,Or waft promiscuous down, where now betweenTheir towering banks,u far from the wrath behind,Hurrying as if dismay'd and dark they windTheir deep contracted deluge.—Pregnant scene!Wherein fall'n power its own sad act may trace;Power, that by bounteous heaven from obscure sourceAdvanced, with boundless rule and headlong courseLong 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'dBy Fame's retiring trump, that loud no more,But makes despair more joyless; as the roarOf yon high-falling flood remotely heard,Saddens the troubled stream, that groans below.There, save that lonely skiff, no swelling sailLeans her coy bosom from the wanton gale;Lest with its eddying ebb her helpless prowThe refluent tide should seize, and drift aboveTo th' howling base of that pernicious steep,Plunged 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,What are the brooks of Wales, or statelier Clyde,vOr Anio, or Velino,w or the tideThat shoots the slopes of Nile?x thy breadth a sea,Thy shock an earthquake, and thy awful voiceThe sound of many waters. Grand and boldColumbia thus, the child of Nature's choice,Scales all her wonders to the Rhodian mould.yHer lakes are oceans, every stream a bay,Wide through her frame its branching artery throws:Her mountains kiss the moon: her sapient swayA beauteous beltz hath wrought, whose ties enclose Tribes without end, realm after realm embraced In Freedom's opening arms, the savage and the waste.