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Famous Niagara Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Niagara poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous niagara poems. These examples illustrate what a famous niagara poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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by Whitman, Walt
...s of perpetual snow, 
Some half-hid in Oregon, or away southward in Texas,
Some in the north finding their way to Erie, Niagara, Ottawa, 
Some to Atlantica’s bays, and so to the great salt brine. 

In you whoe’er you are my book perusing, 
In I myself, in all the world, these currents flowing, 
All, all toward the mystic ocean tending.

Currents for starting a continent new, 
Overtures sent to the solid out of the liquid, 
Fusion of ocean and land, tender and pensive ...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...im, 
Making its rivers, lakes, bays, embouchure in him, 
Mississippi with yearly freshets and changing chutes—Columbia, Niagara, Hudson,
 spending
 themselves lovingly in him,
If the Atlantic coast stretch, or the Pacific coast stretch, he stretching with them north
 or
 south, 
Spanning between them, east and west, and touching whatever is between them, 
Growths growing from him to offset the growth of pine, cedar, hemlock, live-oak, locust,
 chestnut, hickory, cottonwood, o...Read more of this...

by Lehman, David
...Wisteria, hysteria is as obvious a rhyme
as Viagra and Niagara there must be a reason
honeymooners traditionally went to the Falls
which were, said the divine Oscar,
an American bride's second biggest disappointment
tell me which do you like better,
the American Falls or the Horseshoe Falls,
I say the Horseshoe Falls, Joe says,
because its magnificence surpasses the American Falls
thank you, Joe, and did you kno...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...f the south savannas, Ohio’s land,
Take notice, you Kanuck woods—and you Lake Huron—and all that with you roll
 toward
 Niagara—and you Niagara also, 
And you, Californian mountains—That you each and all find somebody else to be your
 singer
 of songs, 
For I can be your singer of songs no longer—One who loves me is jealous of me, and
 withdraws me from all but love, 
With the rest I dispense—I sever from what I thought would suffice me, for it does
 not—it is now empty and t...Read more of this...

by Meredith, George
...I quite well? Most excellent in health!
The journals, too, I diligently peruse.
Vesuvius is expected to give news:
Niagara is no noisier. By stealth
Our eyes dart scrutinizing snakes. She's glad
I'm happy, says her quivering under-lip.
"And are not you?" "How can I be?" "Take ship!
For happiness is somewhere to be had."
"Nowhere for me!" Her voice is barely heard.
I am not melted, and make no pretence.
With commonplace I freeze her, tongue and sen...Read more of this...



by Meredith, George
...I quite well? Most excellent in health!
The journals, too, I diligently peruse.
Vesuvius is expected to give news:
Niagara is no noisier. By stealth
Our eyes dart scrutinizing snakes. She's glad
I'm happy, says her quivering under-lip.
"And are not you?" "How can I be?" "Take ship!
For happiness is somewhere to be had."
"Nowhere for me!" Her voice is barely heard.
I am not melted, and make no pretence.
With commonplace I freeze her, tongue and sen...Read more of this...

by Lindsay, Vachel
...e ants they worry to and fro,
(Important men, in Buffalo.)
But only twenty miles away
A deathless glory is at play:
Niagara, Niagara.

The women buy their lace and cry: —
"O such a delicate design,"
And over ostrich feathers sigh,
By counters there, in Buffalo.
The children haunt the trinket shops,
They buy false-faces, bells, and tops,
Forgetting great Niagara.

Within the town of Buffalo
Are stores with garnets, sapphires, pearls,
Rubies, emeralds aglow, —
O...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...me the quick veering and darting of fifty skiffs, my companions. 

7
O boating on the rivers! 
The voyage down the Niagara, (the St. Lawrence,)—the superb scenery—the
 steamers, 
The ships sailing—the Thousand Islands—the occasional timber-raft, and the
 raftsmen
 with long-reaching sweep-oars, 
The little huts on the rafts, and the stream of smoke when they cook their supper at
 evening.

O something pernicious and dread! 
Something far away from a puny and piou...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...r my soul, hungering gymnastic, I devour’d what the earth gave me; 
Long I roam’d the woods of the north—long I watch’d Niagara pouring; 
I travel’d the prairies over, and slept on their breast—I cross’d the
 Nevadas, I
 cross’d the plateaus; 
I ascended the towering rocks along the Pacific, I sail’d out to sea;
I sail’d through the storm, I was refresh’d by the storm; 
I watch’d with joy the threatening maws of the waves; 
I mark’d the white combs where they career’d so high...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...of the earth;
I see where the Mississippi flows—I see where the Columbia flows; 
I see the Great River and the Falls of Niagara; 
I see the Amazon and the Paraguay; 
I see the four great rivers of China, the Amour, the Yellow River, the Yiang-tse, and the
 Pearl; 
I see where the Seine flows, and where the Danube, the Loire, the Rhone, and the
 Guadalquiver
 flow;
I see the windings of the Volga, the Dnieper, the Oder; 
I see the Tuscan going down the Arno, and the Venetian a...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...l, or north or south of Manhattan, 
Where our factory-engines hum, where our miners delve the ground, 
Where our hoarse Niagara rumbles, where our prairie-plows are plowing;
Speak, O bard! point this day, leaving all the rest, to us over all—and yet we know
 not
 why; 
For what are we, mere strips of cloth, profiting nothing, 
Only flapping in the wind? 

POET.
I hear and see not strips of cloth alone; 
I hear again the tramp of armies, I hear the challenging sentry;
I he...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...-starr’d flag is borne at the head of the regiments; 
Approaching Manhattan, up by the long-stretching island; 
Under Niagara, the cataract falling like a veil over my countenance; 
Upon a door-step—upon the horse-block of hard wood outside; 
Upon the race-course, or enjoying picnics or jigs, or a good game of base-ball;
At he-festivals, with blackguard jibes, ironical license, bull-dances, drinking,
 laughter; 
At the cider-mill, tasting the sweets of the brown mash, ...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ank of crowds, intervals passing, rapt and happy; 
Aware of the fresh free giver, the flowing Missouri—aware of mighty
 Niagara; 
Aware of the buffalo herds, grazing the plains—the hirsute and
 strong-breasted bull;
Of earth, rocks, Fifth-month flowers, experienced—stars, rain, snow, my
 amaze; 
Having studied the mocking-bird’s tones, and the mountainhawk’s, 
And heard at dusk the unrival’d one, the hermit thrush from the
 swamp-cedars, 
Solitary, singing in the West, I stri...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...am
With which my beer is crowned,
The wheels beneath the gilded dome
Go round and round and round.

I think of vast Niagara,
Those gulfs of foam a-shine,
Whose mighty roar would stagger a
More prosy bean than mine;
And as the hours I idly spend
Against a greasy wall,
I know that green the waters bend
And fall and fall and fall.

I think of Nijni Novgorod
And Jews who never rest;
And womenfolk with spade and hod
Who slave in Buda-Pest;
Of squat and sturdy Japanese
Who ...Read more of this...

by Lindsay, Vachel
...> 
They tour from St. Louis, Columbus, Manistee,
They tour from Peoria, Davenport, Kankakee.
Cars from Concord, Niagara, Boston,
Cars from Topeka, Emporia, and Austin.
Cars from Chicago, Hannibal, Cairo.
Cars from Alton, Oswego, Toledo.
Cars from Buffalo, Kokomo, Delphi,
Cars from Lodi, Carmi, Loami.
Ho for Kansas, land that restores us
When houses choke us, and great books bore us!
While I watch the highroad
And look at the sky,
While I watch the clou...Read more of this...

by Levine, Philip
...l's 
grown over. Once we set sail here 
for Bob-Lo, the Brewery Isles, Cleveland. 
We would have gone as far as Niagara 
or headed out to open sea if the Captain 
said so, but the Captain drank. Blood-eyed 
in the morning, coffee shaking in his hand, 
he'd plead to be put ashore or drowned, 
but no one heard. Enormous in his long coat, 
Sinbad would take the helm and shout out 
orders swiped from pirate movies. Once 
we docked north of Vermillion to meet 
...Read more of this...

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