The Cataract of the Mohawk. Richard Hengist Horne (1802-1884). Middle States: Mohawk, the River, N. Y. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. America: Vols. XXV-XXIX

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

Middle States: Mohawk, the River, N. Y.

The Cataract of the Mohawk

Richard Hengist Horne (1802–1884)


YE black rocks, huddled like a fallen wall,
Ponderous and steep,
Where silver currents downward coil and fall,
And rank weeds weep!—
Thou broad and shallow bed, whose sullen floods,	5
Show barren islets of red stones and sand,—
Shrunk is thy might beneath a fatal Hand,
That will erase all memories from the woods.

No more with war-paint, shells, and feathers grim,
The Indian chief	10
Casts his long, frightful shade from bank or brim.
A blighted leaf
Floats by,—the emblem of his history!
For though when rains are strong, the cataract
Again rolls on, its currents soon contract,	15
Or serve for neighboring mill and factory.

A cloud—of dragon’s blood in hue—hangs blent
With streaks and veins
Of gall-stone yellow, and of orpiment,
O’er thy remains.	20
Never again, with grandeur, in the beam
Of sunrise, or of noon, or changeful night,
Shalt thou in thunder chant thine old birthright:
Fallen Mohawk! pass to thy stormy dream!