Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.
By Trenton Falls, near UticaAnthony Bleecker (17701827)
Y
Sublimely in your solitude,
Listening the wild water’s roar,
As thundering down, from steep to steep,
Along your wave-worn sides they sweep,
Dashing their foam from shore to shore.
Fell beast that roved the wilderness,
And savage men once hover’d round:
But startled at your bellowing waves,
Your frowning cliffs, and echoing caves,
Affrighted fled the enchanted ground.
Which bent but to the mountain breeze,
Have sunk beneath the woodman’s blade;
New sun-light through your forest pours,
Paths wind along your sides and shores,
And footsteps all your haunts invade.
In gay costume each day repair,
Where thy proud rocks exposed stand,
While echo, from her old retreats,
With babbling tongue strange words repeats,
From babblers on your stony strand.
With names and dates all scribbled o’er,
Vile blurs on nature’s heraldry;
O bid your river in its race,
These mean memorials soon efface,
And keep your own proud album free.
But soon Autumnus with his showers,
Shall all thy wasted strength restore;
Then will these ramblers down thy steep,
With terror pale their distance keep,
Nor dare to touch thy trembling shore.
One name upon thy stony page;
’Tis hers—the fairest of the fair;
And when she comes these scenes to scan,
Then tell her, Echo, if you can,
His humble name who wrote it there.