Poem by Samuel Lover

Nymph of Niagara

Written on Lake Ontario, 
Immediately after Leaving the Falls

Nymph of Niagara! Sprite of the mist!
With a wild magic my brow thou hast kiss'd;
I am thy slave, and my mistress art thou,
For thy wild kiss of magic is yet on my brow.

I feel it, as first when I knelt before thee,
With thy emerald robe flowing brightly and free,
Fringed with the spray-pearls, and floating in mist—
Thus 'twas my brow with wild magic you kiss'd.

Thine am I still;—and I'll never forget
The moment the spell on my spirit was set;—
Thy chain but a foam-wreath—yet stronger by far
Than the manacle, steel-wrought, for captive of war;

For the steel it will rust, and the war will be o'er,
And the manacled captive be free as before;
While the foam-wreath will bind me for ever to thee!—
I love the enslavement—and would not be free!

Nymph of Niagara, play with the breeze,
Sport with the fawns 'mid the old forest trees;
Blush into rainbows at kiss of the sun,
From the gleam of his dawn till his bright course be run;

I'll not be jealous—for pure is thy sporting,
Heaven-born is all that around thee is courting—
Still will I love thee, sweet Sprite of the mist,
As first when my brow with wild magic you kiss'd!

1. The Two Barrels
2. True Love Can Never Forget
3. Rory O'More
4. Widow Machree
5. The Forsaken

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