Classic Poem

In palaces and peopled marts
I mingled where the many press;
I proved and weighed the hollow hearts,
And all was waste and emptiness.

I broke the peremptory bars,
I steered where blue Pacific smiles,
Lifting a languid wave, and stars
Vast deeps with constellated isles.

I watched my boat consume, moored high,
With gushing sparks and quivering heat;
My eye beheld another's eye,
Against my heart another beat.

The white foam boiled along the reef,
The moon was mated with a cloud,
The palm-tree streaked with shadowy leaf
That dusky maiden singing loud:—

‘I asked Atua what to do
With the strange pair from o'er the sea,
The strange man and the strange canoe,
And thus the God has counselled me.’