![]() ![]() We are the children who stand at the edge of a vast unknown, timidly putting our faith and love out there, just hoping it will be received and answered. The second stanza identifies in this historic building project an extended metaphor of spiritual significance. ![]() The first stanza recounts the construction of Ellet’s suspension bridge across the Niagara River, especially his use of a kite to hang the initial cable. This poem is very close in form to a Petrarchan sonnet-it consists of an octave and a sestet in iambic pentameter, with a caesura (turn) between them, but it doesn’t rhyme. (Related post: “ESSAY: ‘The Poetry of Jesus’ by Edwin Markham”) Has greatened to a chain no chance can break, Thought after thought until the little cord Send out our love and faith to thread the deep. Sent out across the gulf his venturing kiteĪcross the void, out to God’s reaching hands. The builder who first bridged Niagara’s gorge,īefore he swung his cable, shore to shore, “Anchored to the Infinite” by Edwin Markham Watercolor, 23.7 × 31.4 cm.Edwin Markham (1852–1940) interprets this story as a parable in his poem “Anchored to the Infinite,” likening faith and love to cords that grow in strength the more they are sent out, and that have their anchor in God. Over the next month or so, they pulled successively heavier and stronger lines back and forth, back and forth, until the final bridge cable was in place.ĭonna Marie Campbell, Kite Flying Contest Held To Get The First Line Across For The Suspension Bridge (after a 19th-century sketch by an unknown artist), 1975. Ellet’s team attached a light cord to Walsh’s kite string, then pulled the joined lines back across. Sixteen-year-old Homan Walsh won, flying his kite from the Canadian shoreline to the American side, where he had it fastened to a tree. To generate publicity, he held a kite-flying contest in January 1848, offering a cash prize to the first boy to anchor a string from country to country, 800 feet across the chasm and about 240 feet above the Whirlpool Rapids. Cannonballs, rockets, and steamers were among the proposals, but Ellet ultimately decided to use a kite. Edwin markham how to#was hired as the chief engineer.Įllet’s first challenge was how to get a line across the gap. Endeavoring to better connect the Atlantic coast with new territories in the West, entrepreneur William Merritt got permission to build a railway suspension bridge over the river, two and a half miles north of Niagara Falls. Prior to 1848, anyone wanting to cross the Niagara River had to do so by ferryboat, making it difficult for people and cargo to travel between New York and Upper Canada. ![]()
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