Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/286

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250
A Temple Service.
The flowery rods at first that beat      So light and sweet,Their flowers fell off from them yet fresh,      Thorns tore the flesh.
people.
“Our gods are great,” the false priests said,  “For their fierce joysThe fire must flow about the head  Of girls and boys.”
Prone ’neath their women’s soft queen-hood,  Their lord’s kingshipSmote off the silken servitude  With bloody whip.
priests.
“Have ye a garland for your head?”      The wise God said.“Lo! here a fetter for your feet,      It is but meet.
“For strangers ye My laws forsake,      Their yokes to take;Think ye to choose the light and small      Nor wear them all?”
people.
Our hosts were broken in the wars,  And faint of heartFled home, and from his shut house-doors  None durst depart.
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