RATA,

Otago Witness, Issue 2252, 29 April 1897, Page 41

RATA,

I saw her as she trode, Head lithely poised Above her slender neck, With the free grace Of savagedom sans check, Latently there that slept Within. Down thru' the bracken fern Came she so light. Hjrdly their brown froiuls Una Beneath her tread, but spring Elastic as a feathered thiag Had passing iv i\s flight Bent djwu their plumes. And her long tr-ssw, Plaited in carel.*eswi«e Down tn her e.irving thigh=, Drunk the sun's glinting blazo In their dull ebon rays. Da k as the tui's whig. And as .she cam a From 'neath he." level brows Waved love's bright oriflamme, Half veil'd with lashes drape. From liquid eye-> in tint, As aoine rijje mellow grape With hidden ihine, Dark, opalescent, Perchance ruay giinfc. Hear rawuy skin, Oleir, adolescent. Showed from within its bloom ; the flow Of youth's warm stream, That through the teuder flesh Khoue as the rata flowers, Crinibonly gleam. When the dim reek o'erpowera Of bush aflame, Full from her un-taiiied mouth Her salutation ''Hail" Came long and low — As when trom out the south The murmur of the surge Lingers along the verge Of the dim shoTe. Then was shi> gone, And I alone see her no more. LS97. — J. Atheley.