New Zealand Verse/The Strayed Albatross
LXXI.
The Strayed Albatross.
Here where the City’s sound
Floods o’er his dumb distress,
A storm-bound wanderer, bound
In bondage pitiless,
He waits what doom may rise:
Bewildered patience in his eyes.
Floods o’er his dumb distress,
A storm-bound wanderer, bound
In bondage pitiless,
He waits what doom may rise:
Bewildered patience in his eyes.
Unknown creations bend
Strange looks on his sad grace;
Strange panic dreads attend
This alien of a race
Unskilled to live or die
Apart from sea and sky.
Strange looks on his sad grace;
Strange panic dreads attend
This alien of a race
Unskilled to live or die
Apart from sea and sky.
The soft deep breast that yet
Thrilled to no thought of care,
The strong, suave seas that met
Or sweet long rush of air,
Now on the pavement stone
Throbs, faints, to fears alone.
Thrilled to no thought of care,
The strong, suave seas that met
Or sweet long rush of air,
Now on the pavement stone
Throbs, faints, to fears alone.
The young free creature, winged
To fleet where wild winds blow,
On crags by breakers ringed
To nest where none may know,—
What guilt was his, to gain
This human height of pain?
To fleet where wild winds blow,
On crags by breakers ringed
To nest where none may know,—
What guilt was his, to gain
This human height of pain?
Suffering, poor bird, as may
Only young souls in grief:
Who see transformed the gay
Glad world of their belief;
And wait what doom may rise,
Bewildered patience in their eyes.
Only young souls in grief:
Who see transformed the gay
Glad world of their belief;
And wait what doom may rise,
Bewildered patience in their eyes.