New Zealand Verse/The White Convolvulus
LXVIII.
The White Convolvulus.
The one gray spire of the scattered town
On an ocean of rolling green looked down,
Billowy masses of verdure fair,
Motionless all in the windless air.
On an ocean of rolling green looked down,
Billowy masses of verdure fair,
Motionless all in the windless air.
Rising and sinking in dip and crest,
But never a motion, all at rest;
As though some wizard with strange decree,
Had said, “Be still,” to a spell-bound sea.
But never a motion, all at rest;
As though some wizard with strange decree,
Had said, “Be still,” to a spell-bound sea.
Over the leafy wave-tops high,
In the fresh, sweet air of the morning sky,
Sole speck of black in the shining day,
One hawk was winging his lazy way.
In the fresh, sweet air of the morning sky,
Sole speck of black in the shining day,
One hawk was winging his lazy way.
Dark as a reef by the ebb-tide stript
Rose into masses the eucalypt.
Laburnums nigh with the ringlets bold
Dangled their lanterns of shaking gold.
Rose into masses the eucalypt.
Laburnums nigh with the ringlets bold
Dangled their lanterns of shaking gold.
Piercing the leaves in its morning flight,
Filling the flood with a dusky light,
The sunshine fell on a river clear,
Flashing and vanishing far and near.
Filling the flood with a dusky light,
The sunshine fell on a river clear,
Flashing and vanishing far and near.
The rain-washed sky was a shield of blue,
The flowers ungathered, the long grass new.
Eyerywhere vigour and sap were rife,
Full of the heat and the wine of life.
The flowers ungathered, the long grass new.
Eyerywhere vigour and sap were rife,
Full of the heat and the wine of life.
Ranges on ranges, far crest on crest,
The long Alp-barriers closed the West,
Like the walls of the Median city old,
A guardian girdle sevenfold.
The long Alp-barriers closed the West,
Like the walls of the Median city old,
A guardian girdle sevenfold.
There grimmest ridges looked softer through
The clinging film of their gentle blue,
Where high in the haze of the summits show
The cool, faint streaks of belated snow.
The clinging film of their gentle blue,
Where high in the haze of the summits show
The cool, faint streaks of belated snow.
And all, from the mountain, the great plain o’er,
To the sickle-blade of the curving shore,
From earth below to the heaven’s height,
Was pierced and filled with the living light.
To the sickle-blade of the curving shore,
From earth below to the heaven’s height,
Was pierced and filled with the living light.
Many and many a flower-maid,
For her tender beauty half afraid,
Loosed for the Lord of the Day her zone,
Seen by the wandering wind alone.
For her tender beauty half afraid,
Loosed for the Lord of the Day her zone,
Seen by the wandering wind alone.
The fragile lilac, alas! was fled
With the delicate breath of the springtide dead,
Swift as a vision of vanished youth,
Briefest and fleetest, a dream of ruth.
With the delicate breath of the springtide dead,
Swift as a vision of vanished youth,
Briefest and fleetest, a dream of ruth.
But the ruddy may in the hedges grew,
The satin wings of the white flag flew,
And the dandelion's orange clots
Were stars in a thousand wastrel plots.
The satin wings of the white flag flew,
And the dandelion's orange clots
Were stars in a thousand wastrel plots.
The rose’s poetry, poppy’s prose,
The braggart peony’s wrathful rows
By the dainty pink and the pansy stood,
Where iris flaunted her purple hood.
The braggart peony’s wrathful rows
By the dainty pink and the pansy stood,
Where iris flaunted her purple hood.
Beautiful all. But we passed them thus,
Passed to a snowy convolvulus
White in the air o’er the waters flow,
Shadowy, wan in the wave below.
Passed to a snowy convolvulus
White in the air o’er the waters flow,
Shadowy, wan in the wave below.
Goblet ethereal swaying clear,
Pale as the stars on a midnight mere,
Thinner than shells that in ocean lie
Or pinion carven of ivory.
Pale as the stars on a midnight mere,
Thinner than shells that in ocean lie
Or pinion carven of ivory.
Cup of aërial beauty made,
Touched by no tarnish of earth it swayed,
And as it answered the air’s light breath,
An image waved in the stream beneath.
Touched by no tarnish of earth it swayed,
And as it answered the air’s light breath,
An image waved in the stream beneath.
As the milk-white flower from side to side
Swung like a bell o’er the cool green tide,
Leaning and dreaming we listened low
For clear bell-music anigh the flow.
Swung like a bell o’er the cool green tide,
Leaning and dreaming we listened low
For clear bell-music anigh the flow.
Poets there be who have ears to hear
The star’s high music ’twixt sphere and sphere.
Lovers there be who in golden hours
May know the voices of earth’s frail flowers
The star’s high music ’twixt sphere and sphere.
Lovers there be who in golden hours
May know the voices of earth’s frail flowers
Lovers twain we were happy there
In a glory neither of earth nor air,
And each through the other’s soul could well
The music catch of the fairy bell.
In a glory neither of earth nor air,
And each through the other’s soul could well
The music catch of the fairy bell.
Faint as the sough of a desert tree
When a slow wind stirs it carelessly,
Light as the murmur of dancing flame
Its voice in the hush of the morning came:—
When a slow wind stirs it carelessly,
Light as the murmur of dancing flame
Its voice in the hush of the morning came:—
“I am a daughter of air and light,
Of bird and willow the playmate white,
Fed on the fire of our god the sun,
Not by desire of a mortal won.
Of bird and willow the playmate white,
Fed on the fire of our god the sun,
Not by desire of a mortal won.
“Withering, dying at mortal touch,
I fade away in the spoiler’s clutch,
Never in prison to droop my span,
In the heavy air of the house of man.
I fade away in the spoiler’s clutch,
Never in prison to droop my span,
In the heavy air of the house of man.
“But here I nod to the drowsy wind,
In a tremulous hammock of tendrils twined,
Eyeing my friends on their journey by,
The honey-sucker and dragon-fly.
In a tremulous hammock of tendrils twined,
Eyeing my friends on their journey by,
The honey-sucker and dragon-fly.
“Watching them ruffle the glassy floor
Of the long, green, arching corridor,
Whose whispering willows dip and rise,
Cutting the stream as the current flies.
Of the long, green, arching corridor,
Whose whispering willows dip and rise,
Cutting the stream as the current flies.
“In the dim sweet water-world are seen
Mazes of streaming and shifting green,
And deeper, dreaming beyond, a few
Silvery clouds in the bowl of blue.
Mazes of streaming and shifting green,
And deeper, dreaming beyond, a few
Silvery clouds in the bowl of blue.
“And there I gaze at the spectral sky,
The ghost of the rocking sphere on high,
Till touched by twilight my flower is furled,
And my shadow steals from the water-world.
The ghost of the rocking sphere on high,
Till touched by twilight my flower is furled,
And my shadow steals from the water-world.
“I must be free as the wildest thing,
In the leafy tangle to curl and cling,
Free to laugh in the beams of day,
Free on the blast to be borne away.
In the leafy tangle to curl and cling,
Free to laugh in the beams of day,
Free on the blast to be borne away.
“Not waiting sadly to die a-cold,
My petals trampled in rotting mould,
But rapt and lost when my life is past
In the shining spaces of air at last.”
My petals trampled in rotting mould,
But rapt and lost when my life is past
In the shining spaces of air at last.”