Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/37

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NEW ZEALAND VERSE.

i.

New Zealand.

God girt her about with the surges
  And winds of the masterless deep,
Whose tumult uprouses and urges
  Quick billows to sparkle and leap;
He filled from the life of their motion
  Her nostrils with breath of the sea,
And gave her afar in the ocean
  A citadel free.

Her never the fever-mist shrouding,
  Nor drought of the desert may blight,
Nor pall of dun smoke overclouding
  Vast cities of clamorous night,
But the voice of abundance of waters,
  Cold rivers that stay not or sleep,
Greets children, the sons and the daughters
  Of light and the deep.

Lo! here where each league hath its fountains
  In isles of deep fern and tall pine,
And breezes snow-cooled on the mountains,
  Or keen from the limitless brine,