Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/72
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From “Ranolf and Amohia.”
XVI.
From “Ranolf and Amohia.”
It was a wondrous realm beguiled
Our youth amid its charms to roam;
O’er scenes more fair, serenely wild,
Not often summer’s glory smiled;
When flecks of cloud, transparent, bright,
No alabaster half so white—
Hung lightly in a luminous dome
Of sapphire—seemed to float and sleep
Far in the front of its blue steep;
And almost awful, none the less
For its liquescent loveliness,
Behind them sunk—just o’er the hill
The deep abyss, profound and still—
The so immediate Infinite;
That yet emerged, the same, it seemed
In hue divine and melting balm,
In many a lake whose crystal calm
Uncrisped, unwrinkled, scarcely gleamed;
Where sky above and lake below
Would like one sphere of azure show,
Save for the circling belt alone,
The softly-painted purple zone
Of mountains—bathed where nearer seen
In sunny tints of sober green,
With velvet dark of woods between,
All glossy glooms and shifting sheen;
While here and there, some peak of snow
Would o’er their tenderer violet lean.
Our youth amid its charms to roam;
O’er scenes more fair, serenely wild,
Not often summer’s glory smiled;
When flecks of cloud, transparent, bright,
No alabaster half so white—
Hung lightly in a luminous dome
Of sapphire—seemed to float and sleep
Far in the front of its blue steep;
And almost awful, none the less
For its liquescent loveliness,
Behind them sunk—just o’er the hill
The deep abyss, profound and still—
The so immediate Infinite;
That yet emerged, the same, it seemed
In hue divine and melting balm,
In many a lake whose crystal calm
Uncrisped, unwrinkled, scarcely gleamed;
Where sky above and lake below
Would like one sphere of azure show,
Save for the circling belt alone,
The softly-painted purple zone
Of mountains—bathed where nearer seen
In sunny tints of sober green,
With velvet dark of woods between,
All glossy glooms and shifting sheen;
While here and there, some peak of snow
Would o’er their tenderer violet lean.
And yet within this region, fair
With wealth of waving woods—these glades
With wealth of waving woods—these glades