A Canterbury Summer

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17223, 14 December 1923, Page 20 (Supplement)

A Canterbury Summer

THIRD PRIZE POEM

I slept; ami in a dream I saw, Three hundred years ago, A spreading plain, and blue-grey hills Crowned with eternal snow. And cooling fountains went-their ways From glacier-laden peaks— Full well supplied was all the land With rivers, springs, and creeks. Great forests dense were spread afar And clothed the land with green ; Tn sylvan aisles of pillared pines The raoa walked between. Fern, manuka, and tussock grew Between the forests wide; These humble bardy races thrived On flat and mountain-side. No cultivated fields I saw Save where the kumara grew— Few of the later a~ts of men The primal Maori knew. And on the land the summertime V j. Sat, like a lovely queen. Resplendent in her native robes Of vari-shaded green. T woke ; and 10, this very land AVas full of busy toil; A stranger race had entered in And claimed the fertile soil; And hamlets, towns, and fruitful farms Had covered hill and plain; The forests long had given place To fields of ripened grain. • No longer did the moa walk In glades of forest deep; Instead on even pasture fed A million favoured sheep. Where, in the days of tribal raids The war-conch sounded long. The summer day was vibrant with The binders’ whirring song. O summer dawn! thy waking morn With pulsing music thrills, And coming day with magic hand Has touched a hundred hills. , New voices mingle with the old ; Of songsters in the trees: The air is droning with the flight Of honey-seeking bees. Blue skies above, and from the sea The purest breezes blow ; I bear the ocean’s music throb As surges come and go. And oft I lift a grateful heart, In glowing summertime, To bless the God whose goodness gave This Canterbury clime. What though, at times, the north, wind fall 'And sweep the plain below, It warmly blows on upland heights And melts the fields of snow. And thus refreshment to the land It sends, in vital flood, In streams that, to the waiting fields, Are veins of living blood. Cl>ild of tlie South and of the North ! (South cold and northern heat) Tn thee the elements of both In perfect union meet. Here may the honest labourer Toil in the summer sun, Nor seek a cool retreat until His daily work be done. O wondrous summer nights! how sweet Thy mountain mellowed air As ev’ning falls with mingled hues Across the landscape fair! When slowly dies the toilsome day, And clamant voices cease, And o’er the thoughtful soul is borne A quiet rest and peace. Ford ! in the summer of this pleasant place: In measured sunshine, rains, and winds that blow; In fruitful fields and landscape cliarms tliat grace, A\ T e see Thee mirrored, and Thy goodness know. E A. IRWIN. Ross Terrace, Lyttelton. (A Special Third Prize was awarded to Mr. Irwin, uliose poem was considered worthy of recognition.)