Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/67
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Written in Australia.
31
XIV.
Written in Australia.
The wide sun stares without a cloud:
Whipped by his glances truculent,
The earth lies quivering and cowed!
My heart is hot with discontent—
I hate this haggard continent.
Whipped by his glances truculent,
The earth lies quivering and cowed!
My heart is hot with discontent—
I hate this haggard continent.
But over the loping leagues of sea
A lone land calls to her children free;
My own land holding her arms to me
Over the loping leagues of sea.
A lone land calls to her children free;
My own land holding her arms to me
Over the loping leagues of sea.
The old grey city is dumb with heat;
No breeze comes leaping, naked, rude,
Adown the narrow, high- walled street;
Upon the night thick perfumes brood:
The evening oozes lassitude.
No breeze comes leaping, naked, rude,
Adown the narrow, high- walled street;
Upon the night thick perfumes brood:
The evening oozes lassitude.
But o’er the edges of my town,
Swept in a tide that ne’er abates,
The riotous breezes tumble down;
My heart looks home, looks home, where waits
The Windy City of the Straits!
Swept in a tide that ne’er abates,
The riotous breezes tumble down;
My heart looks home, looks home, where waits
The Windy City of the Straits!
The land lies desolate and stripped;
Across its waste has thinly strayed
A tattered host of eucalypt,
From whose gaunt uniform is made
A ragged penury of shade.
Across its waste has thinly strayed
A tattered host of eucalypt,
From whose gaunt uniform is made
A ragged penury of shade.