New Zealand Verse/To Pohutu in Ebullition
XX.
To Pohutu in Ebullition.
Whence all this whiteness?
This star-foam of brightness
In fairy-like show?
This marvellous spasm
Outleaping the chasm
Of darkness below?
Begotten in thunder,
The stormy depths under,
Thou awful white wonder—
Why travailest thou so?
This star-foam of brightness
In fairy-like show?
This marvellous spasm
Outleaping the chasm
Of darkness below?
Begotten in thunder,
The stormy depths under,
Thou awful white wonder—
Why travailest thou so?
Below! How infernal!
Above! How supernal!
Effervescent—florescent
White heat and white glow.
Erstwhile thou wert sleeping
And weirdly keeping
Thy mad pulse from leaping
To vehement flow.
Oh, what are the powers
That force thy white showers
To such spectre-like play?
Doth thy vicinity
Hold a divinity ?
Or otherwise? say!
Above! How supernal!
Effervescent—florescent
White heat and white glow.
Erstwhile thou wert sleeping
And weirdly keeping
Thy mad pulse from leaping
To vehement flow.
Oh, what are the powers
That force thy white showers
To such spectre-like play?
Doth thy vicinity
Hold a divinity ?
Or otherwise? say!
Is’t a Titan in anguish?
Doth Prometheus languish
In bowels of earth?
Are Vulcans there? forging
And hammering and scourging
To frustrate the birth
Of a spirit?— infinite?—
Escaping—uprising;—
Now living—now dying,
Now flowing—now flying,
Retiring—expiring,
The exquisite vision
Sinks back to its prison.
Doth Prometheus languish
In bowels of earth?
Are Vulcans there? forging
And hammering and scourging
To frustrate the birth
Of a spirit?— infinite?—
Escaping—uprising;—
Now living—now dying,
Now flowing—now flying,
Retiring—expiring,
The exquisite vision
Sinks back to its prison.