Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/251
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Mutability.
215
Though it can feel the ground-swell’s might
Lift and collect itself to smite
The shelving sand.
Lift and collect itself to smite
The shelving sand.
Bound, as a dreamer bound in sleep,
Held back, held fast upon the deep,
The skiff must stay.
Lost as a dream at morning’s star
The fairy isle, borne swift and far,
Fades, fades away.
Held back, held fast upon the deep,
The skiff must stay.
Lost as a dream at morning’s star
The fairy isle, borne swift and far,
Fades, fades away.
For never living man may reach
Or leap upon Night Island’s beach
Howe’er he long,
Though many a night in voyage vain
He cross the visionary main
To hear that song.
Or leap upon Night Island’s beach
Howe’er he long,
Though many a night in voyage vain
He cross the visionary main
To hear that song.
CXLVIII.
Mutability.
Here all is change, and life a deep unrest;
So say the waves that break upon the shore,
The shifting sands that drift for evermore,
The ever-moving crowd that seem possessed
Of souls Unquiet as the waves, but blest
With heedlessness of all that lies before,
For none may know what changes are in store:
We can but dream them on soft nature's breast.
So say the waves that break upon the shore,
The shifting sands that drift for evermore,
The ever-moving crowd that seem possessed
Of souls Unquiet as the waves, but blest
With heedlessness of all that lies before,
For none may know what changes are in store:
We can but dream them on soft nature's breast.