New Zealand Verse/Onawe

LVI.

Onawe.

Peaceful it is: the long light glows and glistens On English grass;Sweet are the sounds upon the ear that listens;— The winds that pass

Rustle the tussock, and the birds are calling, The sea belowMurmurs, upon its beaches rising, falling, Soft, soft, and slow.—

All undisturbed the Pakeha’s herds are creeping Along the hill;On lazy tides the Pakeha’s sails are sleeping, And all is still.

Here once the mighty Atua had his dwelling In mystery,And hence weird sounds were heard at midnight, swelling Across the sea.

Here once the Haka sounded; and din of battle Shook the gray crags,Triumphant shout, and agonized death-rattle Startled the shags.

And now such peace upon this isthmus narrow, With Maori bloodOnce red!— these heaps of stones,— a greenstone arrow Rough-hewn and rude!

Gone is the Atua, and the hillsides lonely, The warriors dead;No sight, no sound! the weird wild wailing only Of gull instead.

Come not the Rangitira hither roaming As once of yore,To dance a ghostly Haka in the gloaming, And feast once more?

Tena koe Pakeha! within this fortification Grows English grass—Tena koe! subtle conqueror of a nation Doomed, doomed to pass!