Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/67

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Written in Australia.
31

XIV.

Written in Australia.

The wide sun stares without a cloud: Whipped by his glances truculent,The earth lies quivering and cowed! My heart is hot with discontent— I hate this haggard continent.
   But over the loping leagues of sea   A lone land calls to her children free;   My own land holding her arms to me   Over the loping leagues of sea.
The old grey city is dumb with heat; No breeze comes leaping, naked, rude,Adown the narrow, high- walled street; Upon the night thick perfumes brood: The evening oozes lassitude.
But o’er the edges of my town, Swept in a tide that ne’er abates,The riotous breezes tumble down; My heart looks home, looks home, where waits The Windy City of the Straits!
The land lies desolate and stripped; Across its waste has thinly strayedA tattered host of eucalypt, From whose gaunt uniform is made A ragged penury of shade.
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