ORIGINAL POETRY.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 780, 5 October 1853, Page 3

ORIGINAL POETRY.

THE KAURI TREES. They raised their stately heads in pride, O’er all the forest trees, Their shadows lingered on the tide Of circumambient seas; The bright sun kissed them as he rose High in the orient heaven, To them, at daylight's lovliest close. His parting beams were given. In velvet glades, by gushing streams, Their giant growth was found, Such has been dreamt in poet’s dreams, And called enchanted ground ; No human foot, no human hand, Those virgin groves had soiled, Fresh as they sprang at God’s command, When Earth’s first morning smil’d. Profoundest silence shrined them round, The air itself breathed awe, The faintest sigh, the lightest sound, Broke Nature’s mystic law. Where are those silent forests now? Keen axes glance and ring, While loud beneath each sheltering bough The hardy woodsmen sing. They make the freight of gallant barks, To many a distant shore, And many a foreign landsman marks The stately height they bore. But never can man’s art restore Those beauties once profan’d, Those forests wear the garb they wore When prte.less Nature reign’d. St. George. Auckland, October 3rd, 1853.