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Mountain Night
I dwell content upon the plains by day
And see the mountains rise,
With their snow-mantled crests like slender spires
Against the azure skies.

Nor wish to climb their shining pinnacles
By cliff and glacial height,
But I am spent with envy when I watch
The mountains in the night.

When Ruapehu speaks the Pleiades,
And Taranaki hears a star-born croon,
And Aorangi's gleaming brows are spanned
By a young sickle moon.

Lilla Gormhuille McKay.