Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/141

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Victoria College.
105
Rudely scarredHer guardian hills encircle her pent streets,Loud with the voices and the steps of trade;And in her bay the ships of east and westMeet and cast anchor.Hers the pride of placeIn shop and mart, no languid beauty sheSpreading her soft limbs among dreaming flowers,But rough and strenuous, red with rudest health,Tossing her blown hair from her eager eyesThat look afar, filled with the gleam of power,She stands the strong queen city of the south.

David McKee Wright.

LXIII.

Victoria College.

Thou shalt be greater than the city that liesBeneath thee, though the wave curve tender foamAthwart her beach, thou hast a fairer homeWhere mountains watch thee with eternal eyes.Within thy sanctuary men shall prizeThe charm of Greece, the majesty of Rome,And Science through thy starry-circled domeShall trail her robe of unimagined dyes.As thou hast gathered round thee all that broodOf sacrifice for knowledge, who foreseeRegeneration, humbleness, and faithWon through the yoke of Pallas, thou shalt beMemory for those that build thy walls when deathHad given them else forgotten solitude.

Hubert Church.

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