Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/178

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The Noosing of the Sun-God.

LXXXIII.

The Noosing of the Sun-God.

  Tiraha, Te Ra!  I am Maui,—Maui the bantling, the darling;—Maui the fire-thief, the jester;—Maui the world’s fisherman!I am Maui, man’s champion!  Thou art the Sun-God,Te Ra of the flaming hair.Heretofore man is thy moth.What is the life of man,Bound to thy rushing wings,Thou fire-bird of Rangi?A birth in a burning;A flash and a war-word;A failing, a fallingOf ash to the ashesOf bottomless Po!  I am Maui!The great one, the little one;A bird that could nestIn the hand of a woman.I—I have vanquishedThe Timeless, the Ancients.The heavens cannot bind me,But I shall bind thee.  Tiraha, Te Ra!”  Ah, the red dayOf the fighting of Maui!How he waxed, how he grew:How the Earth Mother shook!And the sea was afraid,
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