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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 12 (March 1, 1939.)

The Flute

The Flute.

They say we have no fairyland, because
they do not know,
Because they have not trod our ways
beyond where wide roads go.
Because we have no castle towers by
dark and ruined keep.
They say we have no ghost-folk who
walk when good men sleep.
But they have not walked our woodlands
through the quiet and lonely dells,
Where the voices of the fair-haired
ones ring like the phantom bells.
They have not seen the tree-ferns droop beneath the gentle weight
Of Tane's little children when they lie
and sleep too late.
They have not seen the deep green
pools in gloomy upland glen,
When scaled and glistening Taniwha
lie close in hidden den,
And half-gods walk the pale ghost-
ways where once of old they trod
To bear their battle torches high across
the mountain sod.
Oh they have not heard … when mists
lie low upon the dim grey lake,
And voices of the spirit world are all abroad, awake …
A sweeter sound than human, when all
the rest is mute,
The whisper of the music of the
strange low fairy flute.

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