Describe it ! Who can ere describe
The lightning's flash — the thunder's roll.
Say what is Life, or what is Death,
Or paint the portrait of the Soul?
Describe the rainbow in the spray,
The rapids in their wild career —
Raging like ravenous beasts of prey,
While all creation shrinks with fear?
Go sketch and paint the humblest flower
That lends its fragrance to the grove;
Go trace the feeblest star that gleams
From the cerulean vaults above.
Exhaust thyself, vain-glorious man,
On scenes and subjects fit for thee,
Nor dare presumptuously to scan
The wondrous works of Eternity.
The works of an almighty hand
None can depict — though all adore !
Terrific — bold and beautiful.
They breathe the sov'reignty of power.
O God ! it seems to me most strange
That any man so mad should be
To doubt, to disbelieve Thy power
When thus, Creation speaks to Thee.
Originally published in Springs, Water-falls, Sea-bathing Resorts, and Mountain Scenery of the United States and Canada. New York: J. Disturnell, 1855
Source: Charles Mason Dow. Anthology and Bibliography of Niagara Falls. Albany: State of New York, 1921
View this poem on the Niagara Falls Poetry Project website
David Paul Brown (1795-1872), a Philadelphia lawyer, poet, orator and playwright of both tragedies and farce. An obituary recorded that "From the early times of 'anti-slavery' and 'abolition' in Philadelphia, Mr. Brown was the steadfast friend, counselor, spokesman and orator for the anti-slavery party. He was their chivalrous champion upon nearly all occasions, important and unimportant, in court, on the rostrum and in the newspapers. It may be said with safety that he never failed to answer their call." (See "The Albany Law Journal," vol. 6, 1872, pp. 49-50).
How frail
Above the bulk
Of crashing water hangs,
Autumnal, evanescent, wan,
The moon.
Source: Adelaide Crapsey. Verse. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1922.
View this poem on the Niagara Falls Poetry Project website.
Adelaide Crapsey was born on September 9, 1878 in Brooklyn, New York. She was the third daughter of Episcopalian Rev. Algernon Sidney Crapsey and Adelaide Trowbridge Crapsey. She was an honours student at Vassar College, and then became a teacher. She contracted tuberculosis somewhere around 1903, and died on October 8, 1914.
She had been working on a study of metrics that proved too exhausting for her to continue after the onset of her illness, and so she concentrated on poetry. She is known as the inventor of the cinquain – a poem of 5 short lines of unequal length, of which Niagara is one. Her poems were published posthumously.
About the Cinquain From: Wrinn, Mary J. J. The Hollow Reed. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935
Closely related to the Japanese hokku is a little form invented by Adelaide Crapsey. She called it a cinquain. Verse published after her death contains twenty-eight poems in this pattern. They too are exquisite little atmosphere poems. They suggest, as do the Japanese poems, the feeling of things and circumstances. Absence of rhyme gives them the same elusive charm. The scheme is five iambic lines arranged one foot on the first line, two feet on the second, three on the third, four on the fourth and one on the fifth. Substitutions frequently vary the music.
As an expression of the frail inventor's spirit, the cinquain form has special poignancy. Miss Crapsey was a victim of tuberculosis. She wrote most of the poetry which we have today at Saranac*. In fact she gathered her poems together as her memorial.
Her pattern inspired young versifiers. When their first experiments appeared in print a reader remarked that they irritated her. "They promise so much," she complained, "touch the feelings and then leave one nowhere to think it all out for one's self!" That is exactly what Japanese poetry and cinquains are intended to do: they "tease one out of thought' as Keats says it.
Descriptive poetry of Niagara Falls, like the two above, are plentiful, and many can be found on the Niagara Falls Poetry Project website . Across the gorge you can see the two American falls, with the one on the right being named the Bridal Veil falls. The land directly across is Prospect Point. You should be able to see the bridge connecting Prospect Point to Goat Island. The area along the gorge from the Rainbow Bridge to Goat Island is a protected New York State Park.
The structure to the left of the American Falls is not part of an incomplete bridge, but is the Prospect Point Observation Tower where panoramic views of all three falls can be had. An elevator can take you down to the gorge where you can catch the Maid of the Mist tour boat and use the outdoor observation deck.