ON A SKY-LARK’S SONG IN NEW ZEALAND.

Te Aroha News, Volume XII, Issue 1785, 6 November 1895, Page 2

ON A SKY-LARK’S SONG IN NEW ZEALAND.

(Written especially for the Te Arohe and Ohinemuri News.) I rode, an alien in air alien land, so far away, '■ : > v It seeraed aa'if l'cOuld not he the same as 'yesterday. The mountains stood around ine fold on fold, tier upon tier, I seemed encompassed by a mystery of awe and fear. 10 ! 7 The trees, the. grass, the flax on either side like phantoms seemed And I, a phantom among phantoms rode, as one who dreamed The one thing "real seemed the rushing by of rifted air, - And the rude wind that caught and cuffed my cheeks and stirred my hair. The one thing real seemed the pulsing throb of hoo b that sped, And bore onward through a haunted world like one who fled ; Then suddenly there drifted down to earth a rippling song, It thrilled my heart to sudden ecstasy, I rode along No longer dream-like, in a dream-like world,, possest " ' I was in England,’mid my native corn, I was at rest. I raised my eyes and far ab©ve my h#ad one speck there hung; That quivered high against the. blue of space and quivering sung ; It rained down music from its dewy wi.igs, , it sang of home, It drew me hack unto my former ss-lf no more to roam. Past, present, future in one happy song it seemed to blend I was no longer isolate, alone, I’d found a friend; So through a happy mist of falling tears' -1 rode content, My brown-winged emigrant was singing . still bis strength unspent. L.S. April, 1895.