ORIGINAL POETRY.

Southland Times, Issue 736, 14 October 1867, Page 3

ORIGINAL POETRY.

. SKETCHES OF WINTER NEAR QUEENSTOWN. Otago's hills majestic rise, Their craggy peaks ascend the sties j ' They stand among the clouds where flies The electoric flash, Unyielding, while proud tempests sigh * And hailstones dash. What changes did those hills behold When first the fires did melt the gold ; If they could speak, we might be told Gf changing scenes By light and darkness, heat and cold ; And what it means When subterraneous fires did burn Till rocks beneath red-hot did turn ; Then from, the quartz the gold was borne Each tiny drop ; Then earthquakes shook the mountain's horns And raised them up. Their lofty summits towering high, Through stormy clouds I could descry, That hung suspended in the sky On wings of air ; While misty fragments round them played, They turned obscure. Huge mountains, clouds of hail and snow, Through ether float as breezes blow, And cast a frn«m ™, ~ l ',h~ l — . , ... Those rustic hills ; They burst and scatter as they go A host of Ulb. The gloomy ether seems to frown On plants and trees on hilly ground, She wraps them in a snowy tomb — Cold winding sheets ; While cataracts leap and torrents bound Down craggy steeps. The woods around yon hills that grow, Oft stoop beneath a load of snow ; A sudden breeze oft makes them throw Their burdens down ; Then springs aloof each lightened bough With waving bound. A s they put on their snowy cloaks, While raving winds sigh through the rocks, The feathery tribes soon fled in flocks From such a clime — They sought /or woods by lowland brooks Till days grew fine. Oft nature seems to lose her charms, And fill their breasts with dread alarms, ! When hailstones dash their life-blood warms In every vein, They speed their flight, escape the harms j Of hail and rain.