New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-02-12
TIE POET At NI1GAR4.

II may now be recorded that as show
Niagara Falls take precedence of the Atlantic
Ocean. Mr.. Oscar Wilde, who has gone over
them both with the eye OF an art critic, pro-
nounces decidedly in favor of the Falls. The
Ocean was not what he had been led by the
g1lide- books to expect; it was tame and com
monpace not grand nor magnificent nor
terrible hardly ycasty, indeed. TO the poet
who yearned TO see it ramping and
raging under the lashings of an
angry tempest, but failed to find III
It sufficient movement TO provoke regurgita-
tion much less awaken inspiration, the At
lantic was quite a disappointment. And he
did not hesitate to say so. No false notions
of delicacy, nor any mistaken regard for the
feelings of those who live upon the sea, re-
strained the expression OF his unbiased judS-
ment that beyond being a waste of waters of
considerable extent, the Atlantic was hardly
worth while the accounts of 1t had been
greatly exaggerated. To the reporters, who
knew that the Atlantic Ocean had been on
trial, as it were, and had hastened down
the harbor to meet Mr.. Wilde and learn
| its fate, this Judgment was something of a
| surprise. They had never heard that large
and important body of water spoken of in
such disparagng terms, and it is not to be
denied that the entire American people felt
something like shock at hearing so much
water so lightly spoken of by such n man.
Lord Byron had entirely different views. He
| was quite struck with the ocean. He said
| that ten thousand fleets swept over it in vain
that mans control stopped with the shore;
that the ocean arose and shook him, and did
various other rather powerful things. And he
called it deep and dark blue" said he loved
it, and begged it to "roll on" which it has
been doing ever since.
Our people have always taken great pride in
| the Atlantic Ocean. 1t was for many years
the only ocean we had-to speak of-and we
have tried to make the most of it. OF course
we did not consider it quite up to the Great
Lakes, or Niagara Falls, the Natural Cave in
Kentucky, which are exclusively our own but
| we knew it to be much damper than either of
those, and that it showed more bead when
shaken up by northeaster. And of course
we did not like to hear that we had been all
at sea" about it heretofore ; that as a matter
of fact it was not what it had been advertised
to be. Still, we may say this for ourselves,
that after the first feeling of disappOint-
ment passed We accepted the Judgment and
dismissed tie Atlantic Ocean from the
category of natural phenomena. We
yet had hopes that we should be able to
| furnish something to call forth the poets Won
| der and admiration The effort of the Harvard
students To impress him seems to be confessed
"A failure on all hands. In the coarse bat ex-
pressiye phrase of the street, he got away
with the boys instead of their getting away
with him. Mr.. Walt Whitman was more for,u-
nate than the Atlantic Ocean; it is recorded
| that Mr.. Whitman excited his admiration, and
that the heart of the poet of the lily went out
toward the poet Of the arm-pits. 1t was re-
served, however, for our n lagara Falls to excite
his profOundest wonder. The business agent