The Mountain of Te Aroha

Thou are a triumph of God, oh ! glorious mountain of Aroha,
Rearing thy tree clad heights right up to the floors of heaven,
Holding the sunlight of years on thy broad shoulders, reflecting
The grace of eternal youth, and the elixir powers of water,
For sunlight and shade, moisture and rains conspiring make there forever great a statue of nature worthy,
A place in God's paradise, thou peer of all things supurnal,
And mid the pampas plumes, which low at thy feet adoring,
Wave forth thy praise, and of the Divine Creator,
Who hath made all things well, mountains, and trees, and grasses.
Birds of the air which flit, in all their area Man naiveness,
Waters which leap and glide, over the stones and mosses
Rushing to charge the plains with life for the coming harvest.
I join the chorus resonant, swung by the winds, and the rustling
Of twice ten thousand boughs rivalling the sound of great waters,
As when the curling surf, pours out its mighty oblations.
Brought from a thousand leagues of sea, which forever
Leaps, and in vain, strives to kiss the feet of the highest,
Who, in His love for man, hath made all things for his vantage,
Leading our thoughts by what is, to that which lieth beyond us,
Teaching that beauty in nature and all its wondrous completeness,
Is—as we should be—a type of the power and the glory,
Grace and perfection divine—which rules in the being of Godhead.
That he would call us forth from out of the shade and the glamour,
And by the gladness of nature around us loud voicing.
The will of God—the bugle cry of the ages
May ring in the souls of men; excelsior now and forever.
Then like thy mountain peak, Oh, Aroha; lofty and lovely.
Clad with an ever freshness of life, to sing His praise and enjoy Him,
We shall be great and true, to bow at His feet and adore Him.

J. W. May.

Te Aroha-Tauranga Road