The master-stroke of the poem is in two lines:
That alone is august which is gazed upon by the noble,
That alone is gladsome which eyes full of gladness discover.
Herein lies the rebuking judgment upon Niagara's detractors, not all of whom have perpetrated album rhymes.
Mr. Houghton, as the reader will note, recognizes the tragic aspect of Niagara. Considering the insistence with which accident and suicide attend, making here an unappeased altar to the weaknesses and woes of mankind, this aspect of Niagara has been singularly neglected by the poets. We have it, however, exquisitely expressed, in the best of all recent Niagara verse—a sonnet entitled "At Niagara," by Richard Watson Gilder.[86] The following lines illustrate our point:
There at the chasm's edge behold her lean
Trembling, as, 'neath the charm,
A wild bird lifts no wing to 'scape from harm;
Her very soul drawn to the glittering, green,
Smooth, lustrous, awful, lovely curve of peril;
While far below the bending sea of beryl
Thunder and tumult—whence a billowy spray
Enclouds the day.
. . . . . . .
There is a considerable amount of recent verse commonly called "fugitive" that has Niagara for its theme, but I find little that calls for special attention. A few Buffalo writers, the Rev. John C. Lord, Judge Jesse Walker, David Gray, Jas. W. Ward, Henry Chandler, and the Rev. Benjamin Copeland among them, have found inspiration in the lake and river for some of the best lines that adorn the purely local literature of the Niagara region. Indeed, I know of no allusion to Niagara more exquisitely poetical than the lines in David Gray's historical poem, "The Last of the Kah-Kwahs," in which he compares the Indian villages sleeping in ever-threatened peace to
... the isle
That, locked in wild Niagara's fierce embrace,
Still wears a smile of summer on its face—
Love in the clasp of Madness.
With this beautiful imagery in mind, recall the lines of Byron:
On the verge
. . . . . . .
An Iris sits amidst the infernal surge
. . . . . . .
Resembling, 'mid the tortures of the scene,
Love watching Madness with unalterable mien.