New Zealand Verse/Maoriland
XXI.
Maoriland.
Child of Old Empire! Best beloved, alone!
The wizard moon and all her starry fays
Have made their mirror in thy waterways,
Beneath the shadow of the red sun’s throne:
When the sea-hero burst into thy zone
Of Dreaming Silence, through the purple haze,
What lucid visions lit his raptured gaze,
What heart-hopes sang to ocean’s monotone!
The wizard moon and all her starry fays
Have made their mirror in thy waterways,
Beneath the shadow of the red sun’s throne:
When the sea-hero burst into thy zone
Of Dreaming Silence, through the purple haze,
What lucid visions lit his raptured gaze,
What heart-hopes sang to ocean’s monotone!
And he, perchance, hath joy of thee to-day,
Who won thee from the unrelenting gale,
The hopeless calm and the inconstant breeze;
Where, out beyond Death’s sea-track, worlds away,
The winds are wooed by his triumphant sail
To mad airs and sonorous symphonies.
Who won thee from the unrelenting gale,
The hopeless calm and the inconstant breeze;
Where, out beyond Death’s sea-track, worlds away,
The winds are wooed by his triumphant sail
To mad airs and sonorous symphonies.
D. M. Ross.