IN THE GORGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2896, 15 September 1909, Page 70

IN THE GORGE.

O torrent heard among the giant hills tßene&th -ihe sullen canopy of pines, "Where echo dsep the vast, dim ia. T ine fills — My soul your power divines. Ten million tons of shir.gle spread below — Thy gatherings from tbe hoar declivities, — And, ah! Thou tht'ederest, when the clouds are low, With rain upon the trees, Gathering the gravels ficm the far moraine STo spread them down toward the foaming sea. ' When storms have passed above thy pools doth reign A deep tranquillity. r>e mako-mako pours his matins then, TJie tui in his solemn vesper joins. The xuru voices infinite despair Deep in the tangled vines. The blue-duck -whistles from the shadowed tarn, The kuka to his nightly haunts doih speed. Ah! .myriads, knowing neither store nor barn, On Nature's tounty feed. Again the morning tips the crags with fire, The awful splendour of uromelting snow. Glory sits pedestalled on yonder spire, And list the p»an below. How like th 1 angelic "Hallelujah!" when God said "Let there be azure firmament." The tui's triumph floods the f«rny glen, "With the nM,ko-mako'B blent. What needeth mortal adoration now? Nature is rich and redolent of love. The nesfing twitters from the lichened bough, The kiki droops above. The massive rimu's fvnexeal plunies Are darksome ovar matted foliage. Deep in the shade the mountain torrent booms. And falls 'from age to age. Shall I, who claim an immortality Coeval with tho fir-revolving spheres, Kot wait it out, content is toil and be Pationt these few brief years? — Chahi.es Oscar Palmes.