Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/161
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Rona.
125
But Man that defection still punishes daily; with snare, net and spear still their offspring he chases,
Tangaroa’s and Tane’s—the feathered—the finny; still turns up and tears from her tender embraces
All that Rongo has laid in the lap of his Mother; while fiercely Tawhiri still plagues all their races—
Ever wreaks his wild anger on blue Tangaroa, and whirls into spray-wreaths the billows he lashes—
On the Earth whose rich berries and blossoms he scatters and scathes; on the forests he splinters and crashes;
And on Man who stands firm when his thunder is loudest and laughs when his lightning incessantly flashes!
Tangaroa’s and Tane’s—the feathered—the finny; still turns up and tears from her tender embraces
All that Rongo has laid in the lap of his Mother; while fiercely Tawhiri still plagues all their races—
Ever wreaks his wild anger on blue Tangaroa, and whirls into spray-wreaths the billows he lashes—
On the Earth whose rich berries and blossoms he scatters and scathes; on the forests he splinters and crashes;
And on Man who stands firm when his thunder is loudest and laughs when his lightning incessantly flashes!
LXXVII.
Rona.
Rona, Rona, sister olden,—
Rona in the moon!
You’ll never break your prison golden.
Never, late or soon!
Rona in the moon!
You’ll never break your prison golden.
Never, late or soon!
Rona, for her crying daughter,
At the dead of night
Took the gourd and went for water,—
Went without a light.
At the dead of night
Took the gourd and went for water,—
Went without a light.
There she heard the owlets wrangle
With an angry hoot:
Stick and stone and thorny tangle
Wounded Rona’s foot.
With an angry hoot:
Stick and stone and thorny tangle
Wounded Rona’s foot.