Captain Matthew Webb. the first person to swim the English Channel from Dover to Calais, lost his life at Niagara Falls whilst attempting to swim the Niagara River rapids and whirlpool. This tragedy is documented in poems by 3 of the worst poets writing in English and 3 poets laurate, and includes both a poem and a prose description of encounters with Captain Webb's ghost.

Poems and other sources cited:

Almon Trask Allis.  Uncle Alvin at Niagara   https://niagarapoetry.ca/2018/01/13/alvin/

John Betjeman.  A Shropshire Lad (on album Banana Blush)  https://niagarapoetry.ca/2021/07/27/betjeman/

Donald Lashelle.  The River Niagara  https://niagarapoetry.ca/2018/01/08/lashelle/

James McIntyre.  Niagara’s Charms and Death of Webb  https://niagarapoetry.ca/2021/06/20/charms/

William Arthur Deacon.  The Four Jameses  (book)

James Gay.  Lines on the Death of Captain Webb  https://niagarapoetry.ca/2021/06/20/charms/

Crawford Kilian.  Canada’s Five Worst Poets: Are You Number Six?  https://thetyee.ca/ArtsAndCulture/2012/03/24/Five-Worst-Poets/

Chris Hunt.  McGonagall Online.  https://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/

James McGonagall.  The Death of Captain Webb  https://niagarapoetry.ca/2025/03/02/mcgonagall/

Michelle Ann Kratts, in her Kratts Korner column on the Oakwood Cemetery website  https://www.oakwoodniagara.org/

Niagara Falls Sound Effect by freesound_community from Pixabay

Bears are rarely seen in Niagara today, but they were certainly here in the 19th century. In this episode I examine a story from a guidebook about a bear climbing into a fisherman's canoe in the middle of the Niagara River, and two poems also describing this incident.

Poems & other sources mentioned

Erieus (Adam Hood Burwell, known as the Pioneer Poet).  Journal of a Day’s Journey in Upper Canada in October, 1816

Charles Edwin Jakeway.   Laura Secord

George W. Holley, ed.  The Falls of Niagara.
Florio (Clement Clarke Moore).  A Legend of Niagara
McIntyre, James.  Bear and Falls

Information about recent sightings of bears https://www.wbfo.org/environment/2018-11-05/dec-confirms-resident-bears-in-niagara-county

In this episode I introduce myself, give a brief history of the Niagara Falls Poetry Project, and what to expect from this podcast. I illustrate my motto - "if something happened but I can't find a poem about it, it didn't happen" with a limerick I wrote to illustrate a really neat picture of a cow at the brink of Niagara Falls. So, because I wrote a limerick, it did, in fact, happen. 

I also touch on some of the themes I'll be exploring in upcoming episodes of the podcast, and recite from the fragment of a poem that sparked the idea of the Niagara Falls Poetry Project.

Poems recited: Andrew Porteus. Bossy Sims: A Limerick 

Peter A. Porter. A Legend of Goat Island