Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 6 (October 2, 1933)

Hail, Majestic Aorangi

page 39

Hail, Majestic Aorangi.

Hail, majestic Aorangi,
Hail, O mighty mountain monarch;
Rearing high thy shining summit
To the first bright beams of morning,
Which transform thy snow-topped turrets
To a thousand fairy castles;
Or, when sinks the sun to slumber,
Catching all his dying splendour
On thy rugged, rocky ramparts,
Aorangi, Light of Heaven.
Hail, O frowning Aorangi,
With thy summit mist-enshrouded,
Looming grim and gaunt and ghostly,
'Gainst the grey of gathering snow clouds.
Round about thee beats the blizzard,
Leaps the lightning, rolls the thunder,
Shrill and shriller shrieks the storm wind,
Yet thou standest, still and silent,
Winter's fearful force defying.
Aorangi, Frowning Giant.
Hail, Eternal Aorangi,
Thou who kept thy lonely watches
Long before the dark-skinned Maori
Came to these enchanted islands—
Came and blessed them for their fulness
After days of dearth and hunger.
Thou who watch will still be keeping
While New Zealand stands to witness
God's great goodness to his children,
Aorangi, the Eternal.

* * *