American watchman and Delaware advertiser. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1822-1828, 1827-08-21
FOR THE wATcHMAS.

Alike the pencils and the muses. power
ASPIRE vainly when they grasp at thee.
khaos Of waters !! in whose mighty mass,
Hundreds of rivers undistiDgushed roll
From the wide bosom of Columbias woods,
lheir de stned tribute to the oceans surge.
Natures eternal, universal law,
1hat guides the planets in their trackess course,
Equal and constant through the fields of space,
|Iiat heavcs old ocean on his rocky shores
And tends the floating feather to the ground
Calls thy wild torrents from their mountain home
From trackless solitudes that stretch sublime
Beyond superio's sky encrcled shore,
8Whcre, meath the fir trees deep continuous shade
Prime,al twilight holds her silent reign
nd echo listens as the moose deer bounds
Calmly and fearless DER his native Sleeps
From where the vastness of the central plain
tiinnes its verdure with the azure skies
THAT bound th' horizon and the bson's range
From ravines echoiug with the Algonquns'
whoop,
And lakes that ripple with his birch canoe,
Fill! Tonawanda adds its tranquil wave
ITO the full volume of the torrents flood.
81sapid and silent as the lapse Of time,
mild as tornado OF the southern skies,
bread as Eternity's Overwhelming tide
With swelling impulse to the giddy verge
The pauseless waters roll resistless on
AS glaciers nurtured on the Alpine heights,
Rushing impctuous on the mountains vale,
Or pillarctl waters---from the oceans sky
When the filled reservoirs OF heaven return
The azure columns of Lake Ere's wave
IN fluent avalanche continuous burst.
Crashing Tremendous in the gulph below.
Thunders that heed not to the trump Of heaven
Quivcr incessant to the horizons bound
And earths deep strata yibrate to the roar.
From shrouded tumult DER the dark abyss
Mid rocks abrupted from the heights above,
r. The shiyering ruins of the waters merge,
Fl v hitc as the drif,ngs ot the wintry wind
Fl While cloudy volumes Of escaping spray
u Rising on whirlwnds from the trembling scene,
H Reflect the sunbeams in the ranbnw's hucs
81 And shower gently DER the lceward grove.
Il With minor thunders down its chasm bed,
Worn by its fury in waste of years,
a The mighty torrent s6On resumes its course,
Where high along the fearful SUBMITS hung
Obliquey pendant DER the rapids rage,
The giant cedars stretch their verdant boughs,
Waving like MOSES DER the embattled sleeps,
(Ihe favorite eyrie of Coumbia's bird,)
Until emerging on Ontaro's plain,
The restless waters TRANQUILITY subsidc
IN the calm bosom Of the limpd Lake.
Der far Atantc's blue and billnwy wave
The feecy vapors climb the upper air
10 iloat in cirri on the southern breeze,
Reflect the splenu0r OF the setting sun
Ger the wide forests of the western world,
And kinde pleasure in the natives eve;
Or in the storm cloud Of the eastern blast
Far Ger the varied scenery dituse
Its wonted moisture to the thirst, soil
And bid creation vegetate and live.
Of Summers shower or of winters storm
Whate'er OF sustenance the verdurc spares
Throughout the limits OF thy far domain,
The assured rock peryious soil received,
While from the mountains side or hili0ck's base
Thy myriad fountains, Niagara burst,
And with the confluence of their kindred rills
Adown the rayne's deep and devious course
Urge their long journey to the briny wave.
81 There oft the beaver with mechanic art,
Delays the current of his native brook
10 form play pond for his happy young,
little lake, in mountain scenes immured,
Where seldom cen the wand'rlns hunter stroll,
And nature glories in her virgin bloom.
There, too, the otter has his shaded home
Amid the beech trees INTERVIEWING roots,
Along the margin of the wand'ring wave,
Alert to mark the tinny tribes beneath,
Or wanton, glutted with his specklcd prey,
Slides with his fellows down the messy bank.
Full many scene the chrystal streams reflec
VI primal nature in her widest forms.
Where yet European wand'rer never trod,
Where noo they culver to the pauher's wall,
The VOLTS long bowling, or his beating prey,
As yonder moonbeams light their cleaning cou
TO the far basin Of the upper lakes,
Those spangled mirrors of the northern sky.
Thus with concentred and industrious course
Thy countless streamlets urge their winding W
Hasten to mingle with the falling food
And join old Neptune in Atantc's wave.
Thus nature was, thus thou Niagara rolled,
Eternal evanescent cen as now,
while many forest mouldcred on thy banks,
"hen Gut The red man drank thy lmpld wave,
,u,f piled the bark canoe along thy shores,
Dr. stopt amid the ardor Of the chase
10 list thy cataract's incessant roar