Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/95

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A Winter Daybreak.
59

XXX.

A Winter Daybreak.

i.

From the dark gorge, where burns the morning star, I hear the glacier river rattling onAnd sweeping o’er his ice-ploughed shingle-bar, While wood-owls shout in sombre unison,And fluttering southern dancers glide and go;And black swans’ airy trumpets wildly, sweetly blow.

ii.

The cock crows in the windy winter morn, Then must I rise and fling the curtain by. All dark! But for a strip of fiery skyBehind the ragged mountains, peaked and torn. One planet glitters in the icy cold,Poised like a hawk above the frozen peaks; And bends the cypress, shuddering, to his fold,While every timber, every casement creaks. But still the skylarks sing aloud and bold;The wooded hills arise; the white cascadeShakes with wild laughter all the silent shadowy glade.

iii.

Now from the shuttered East a silvery barShines through the mist, and shows the mild day-star.The storm-wrapped peaks start out and fade again,And rosy vapours skirt the pastoral plain;The garden paths with hoary rime are wet;And sweetly breathes the winter violet;The jonquil half unfolds her ivory cup,With clouds of gold-eyed daisies waking up.
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