The Fall of Niagara

The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain, While I look upward to thee. It wold 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? Oh! what are all the notes that ever rung From war's vain trumpet, by thy thundering side! Yea, what is all the riot man can make 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 waters far Above its loftiest mountains?--a light wave, That breaks, and whispers of its Maker's might.