Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/179

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The Noosing of the Sun-God.
143
And receded and moanedLike a babe that is chidden!The rope that was spunIn the White World of MauiWith blessing and cursingCurled on the dazzling  Neck of Te Ra.
“A pull for the livingThat gasp in the light!A pull for the deadIn abysses of Po!A pull for the babesThat are not, but shall beIn the cool, in the dawn,In the calm of hereafter!  Tiraha, Te Ra!”
The sky was a smotherOf flame and commotion.Low leaped the red fringesTo harass the mountains.And Maui laughed out:—“Hu, hu, the feathersOf the fire-bird of Rangi!”But the rope of the blessing,The rope of the cursing,It shrivelled and broke.He stooped to the coilsAnd he twisted them thrice,And thickly he threw itOn the neck of Te Ra.
“Twice for the living!And twice for the dead!And twice for the long hereafter!”
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