New Zealand Verse/Morning Invocation

XCIV.

Morning Invocation.

Dearest and fairest! sweetest and rarest!
    Arise! come away!
O’er rock and mountain, o’er wood and fountain
    Breaks day.
The mists of the morn from the mountain are rolled
The dew gleams with gold.

Where ferns are darkling, where rills are sparkling,
    The morning breathes joy.
Waving and looping, the wild flowers are drooping
    And coy.
While echo repeats all the voices of morn,
On quiet winds borne.

Come! for the glory lies varied before thee:
    The blue of the sky
No beauty can render like that which makes tender
    Thine eye:
While spendthrifts in spirit and misers in joy,
Our hours we employ.

H. L. Twisleton