THE thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain
When I look up to thee. It would seem
As if GOD pour'd thee from his "hollow hand,"
And hung his bow upon thine awful front;
And spoke in that loud voice, which seem'd to him
Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake,
"The sound of many waters;" and had bade
Thy flood to chronicle the ages back,
And notch His cent'ries in the eternal rocks.

Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we,
That hear the question of that voice sublime?
O! what are all the notes that ever rung
From war's vain trumpet, by thy thundering side!
Yea, what is all the riot that man makes
In his short life, to thy unceasing roar!
And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to HIM
Who drown'd a world, and heap'd the water far
Above its loftiest mountains? — a light wave,
That breaks, and whispers of its Maker's might

Source: Brainard, John. Poems of John Brainard. Hartford: S. Andrus & Son, 1841

View this poem on the Niagara Falls Poetry Project website

When this poem was written, Brainard had never seen Niagara Falls. He was the editor of the Connecticut Mirror of Hartford, Connecticut, and needed something to fill some space. He had a wall calendar with a picture of Niagara Falls on it, and penned these lines in just a few minutes. This poem became one of the best known, and most anthologized, of all of the Niagara Falls poems.

As you can clearly see from this spot, Niagara Falls is made up of three waterfalls, from left to right the American Falls, the Bridal Veil (sometimes called Luna) Falls, and the Horseshoe Falls. The Horseshoe Falls is entirely within Canada, while the others are in the United States.
The Falls originated at the edge of the Niagara escarpment, close to where the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge is now, 12 kilometers (7 miles) downstream (north) about 10,000 years ago. Over the years, it has eroded about .9 meters (3 feet) per year to create the Niagara gorge. It is currently eroding at a rate of about 30 centimeters (1 foot) per year as water is taken out of the falls to produce power. It's mainly taken out at night and stored in huge reservoirs in order to maintain the rate of the flow when visitors are viewing the falls. It is estimated that the falls will recede to Lake Erie in about 50,000 years.

When driving beside the Niagara River in 1943 Winston Churchill called it "the prettiest Sunday drive in the world."