Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/63

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A Leave-taking.
27
With a clamour the great sail steadies,
 In extreme of a storm scarce furled;
Already a short wake eddies,
 And a furrow is cleft and curled
  To the right and left.

About me, light-hearted or aching,
 “Good-bye!” cry they all, taking hand—
What hand do I find worth taking?
 What face as the face of the land?
I will utter a farewell greater
 Than any of friends in ships—
I will leave on the forehead of Nature
 The seal of a kiss—let the lips
  Of a song do this.

We part from the earth, from our mother,
 Her bosom of milk and of sleep,
We deliver our lives to another,
 To cast them away or to keep.
Many-mooded and merciless daughter,
 Uncertain, strange, dangerous sea,
O tender and turbulent water!
 Make gentle thy strength, for in thee
  We put trust for a length.

Float out from the harbour and highland
 That hides all the region I know,
Let me look a last time on the island
 Well seen from the sea to the snow.
The lines of the ranges I follow,
 I travel the hills with my eyes,
For I know where they make a deep hollow,
 A valley of grass and the rise
  Of streams clearer than glass.

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