Autumn Nightfall

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume III, 1 October 1900, Page 24

Autumn Nightfall

Veiled in mists and gloom of rain-cloud sinks the dreary autumn sun Where shafts of lurid purple pierce the storm rack's deeper dun ; Dim and spectral loom the ranges through their falling shroud of snow, While the heavy sky seems weeping for the waste and death below. Dank lie the rotting grasses, and the matted rushes steep In the moaning, windswept gorges, where tlie sunless waters creep ; Dull grey the dripping scrub-line above the oozy mould That the fetid fungi crimson and the lingering mists enfold. No voice of songbird calling to his fellow on the wing, Nor wak'ning of the insect life that summer twilights bring ; Only the hollow plaining of the swollen river bar, And the wild pukaki's shrieking from the marshes on the Skarr. Phill.