Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/276

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Prelude to “The Nazarene.”
Yet to my country I offer this deed, and my country accepts it:Taking with joy from my hand her final release from oppression.Peace be henceforth in her ways, and quietness rest in her borders.Ever alone must I go, a sign, set apart among women;Life overshadowed henceforth by the gloom of a bitter remembrance;Haunted through long dark nights by visions of death ever present,Haunted through long sad days by shuddering fear of the sunset;Yet can I say, “It is well.” I live in the life of my people.Great are the ways of Jehovah, and Israel has rest from her burden.

Mary Colborne-Veel

CLXIX.

Prelude to “The Nazarene.”

I will not have his human story dimmedAnd shadowed over by his divinity.He was of us, all human, brother, friend;He strove, was vanquished, strove and won—a Man.
About his path no cloud of angels hung,Legions and legions watching him; no handLifted him up above his sufferings.He walked not on the clouds, but here with us,Living obscurely on this common earth
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