Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/141

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Victoria College.
105
Rudely scarred
Her guardian hills encircle her pent streets,
Loud with the voices and the steps of trade;
And in her bay the ships of east and west
Meet and cast anchor.
Hers the pride of place
In shop and mart, no languid beauty she
Spreading her soft limbs among dreaming flowers,
But rough and strenuous, red with rudest health,
Tossing her blown hair from her eager eyes
That look afar, filled with the gleam of power,
She stands the strong queen city of the south.

LXIII.

Victoria College.

Thou shalt be greater than the city that lies
Beneath thee, though the wave curve tender foam
Athwart her beach, thou hast a fairer home
Where mountains watch thee with eternal eyes.
Within thy sanctuary men shall prize
The charm of Greece, the majesty of Rome,
And Science through thy starry-circled dome
Shall trail her robe of unimagined dyes.
As thou hast gathered round thee all that brood
Of sacrifice for knowledge, who foresee
Regeneration, humbleness, and faith
Won through the yoke of Pallas, thou shalt be
Memory for those that build thy walls when death
Had given them else forgotten solitude.