SELECTED POETRY. MY FATHERLAND.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 194, 12 March 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

SELECTED POETRY. MY FATHERLAND.

Land of my fathers ! How the aoul drinka in The music of tbv name ! A name so full Of melody to those who live again me old lite over in their dreams of Hornet Whilst yet a boy I dieamt of other lands Where o'er ea:h landscape Hangs the spell of beauty, Where lofty crafjs in all their grandeur rise, And rivers glisten in the fairest vales That ever blessed our earth. There bards of Imtnorta'ised ia song each oia9Bio nook, Each fairy-hsnnto > valley. Heroes trod Tfacae scene-* for ever de.tr to tho^e who prize "The Kifts of nature and of claßSio lore. Oft would 1 c;iuib those mountains, roam those vales, And revel mid their treasures. Richer songs Than ever woke thu ichota of the ista Where sang the siren minstrels, seem'd to apeak Of man's primeval Kdon. I would roam Amiu tluse tscenea of beauty, and would gaze Far out upon tho ocean, where the waves Roll'd gently a3 tho setting sun illumed The mountains *nd the billows. Land and sea, Tha hoary inountaiu and the glistening wave, Seac back the sunbeams, and the vales Were than as full of beauty as of song. 2Pet there ara scenes around my boyhood's home „ That seem to t'v.u. those of summer climes. Haw b.auttful fhe woodland in the valeToe choral haU o' nature And how green •Ihe sloping hilltddo with its sylvan charms.— How rich the d'tisied meadows, whence the Moun'sup. with not>-8 of triumph, to the skies! How gay tha hrJ^orows in their spring-tide dres^, , Their tre-xyares glietening with the morning dew Tftat Unjiera ia the lana9 whore children stray To weave* heir vsild flower garlands. By the rill Tlie woodbine cMi gs around th»? cottago homes O? Bnula.ia'c! nobiu t 'tiers, and the Bongs Up rising from tbe hntor from the hall, Cjrajainglo with the nmoic of the birds. Wo Sinks I hear iho b^lls ring out their chimes To welcome Christen as in From far and near— From viua^e epiivs au'i from cathedral towers — Is-i cheerful scrdad Arc borne upon tho breeze To tel the vk-h. sweot tale i f Bethlehem. Tae 3no .v nay linger yet within the vales And ou thu tree-j 'iow leafleis, yet festooned With q is:oi i-Tg icicles, » n<l frodtod panes M-y s. ul rclighuh" mi its of tho homes Th »: I hav-j eff ') tiind ia those homes "B^oe* h tho m)feltt.e a' Cln-ibtmaatide, U'»n:r.-j are a3 butheiomo h art 3 and gleaming eyed j*.s those we pr /53 beneath tlie Southern Cross. E. S. Hi Auckland,