UNKNOWN

Otago Witness, Issue 2524, 30 July 1902, Page 59

UNKNOWN

Puketapu, sacred mountain'

Sentinel of plain and sea 1 Standing on thy wind-swept summit,

Mystic visions come to me Visions that foretell the future

In a strange, mysterious way. Am I waking? Am I dreaming?

Is it night or is it day? Where yon lonely hut is standing,

By the river's rippling tide, Smiling homesteads fill the \ alley — .

Chinb the hill on either side. Where the patient ox is toiling,

Tugging, straining at his load, Flying trains are gliding onward — • Willing steeds tha.t need no goad. Far beyond the peaceful hamlet

Crowded halls before me rise, Whore tho builders of the nation

Meet to maka their laws so wise. And I 833 the shepherd standing HieH in honour midst the crowd, iWhich upon his- speech is hanging. With their plaudits deep and loud. Yet again the scene is changing: Mists arc blotting out the light. And the shepherd's sun of brightness Sinks behind dark clouds of night. Whom the son of kings has honouved

Bends beneath the v>e*xy 'o«d, Vain the fire of liigh ambition, Vain the plaudita of the crowd. Higher than the royal mandate Which to honour bids him rn-j Is the voice that stirs within him,

Loudly calling to th>i skies. Like the mists ihat wrap the mountain

In a winding-sheet of gloom Is the passing of the shepherd To the darkness of the tomb. But you cairn that cuts the skylina

Mark:; the manner of the mail, Stom and stable aa its buttress,

When he tried to lead the van. And his iife-work leaves behind him

Monuments that Time defy. Each proclaiming, each, asserting That a good .nan cannot die.

-F. A. J.

Dunedui, July, 1902.

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