And when the skies are smiling O’er all the summer land, And nature is enraptured, I’d clasp her gentle hand, And list the songs that greet us, Hear the wind’s plaint and sigh, Wooing the summer’s beauty As it softly treadeth by. I’d look when twilight falleth On the world in dreamy rest, And golden rays still linger In glory in the west. In that rapt quiet hour We’d watch the pale moon rise, And in the tender silence Dream of fadeless Paradise. When the shadow-land I enter, And fails life’s fleeting breath, I’d cross the stream beside her, The stream that we call death. Life’s years of light and shadow, Passed in sweet felicity, Should be but the beginning Of our day, eternity. NIAGARA. I was rapt in unutterable amaze As I looked upon its awful front, And saw the terrific roll of waters As down the deadly mesmeric gorge they fell In power irresistible, tremendous, As if the wrath of God would rend the world asunder For the sin and wrong that man hath done! And the earth trembled as one in fear-- And the thunderous roar of its awesome voice Made all else seem silent as the dead! Yet, majestic and supremely beautiful art thou When the god of day pours o’er thy front his wondrous light, Or when the golden stars and dreaming, silvery moon Lighteth up the slumb’rous shadows of the night. Aye, thou art sublime, though terrible, Niagara! How diminutive are man’s works compared to thee! Thou awe-inspiring, terrific world-wide wonder-- Marvellous work of the Deity! And thou hast rolled and rolled, Niagara; Adown the ages of the dim, mysterious past Thou hast thundered in derision of the flight of time, And mocked when nations to the grave were cast! But the Creator holds thee in the hollow of His hand, And when the sea shall render up its ghastly dead Thou shalt be shorn of thy stupendous power, And bow thy cruel and imperious head. THE OJIBWAYS. Along the shores of Point Pelee, Three hundred years ago, The summer sun in rapture shone, And pure winds soft did blow. The laughing waters rose and fell In soft caressing lave; And flashing sea-birds dipt their wings, And white gulls skimmed the wave. The mallard ducks in thousands flew Along the rippling tide, And eagles soared in heaven’s blue In freedom far and wide; And gay kingfishers watched the surf, And divers cleaved the deep. Across the waters far away Stole murmurs strange and sweet.