Page:Moyarra- An Australian Legend in Two Cantos, 1891.djvu/23

 That raged within Muntookan's breast; "So lightly prized! my love despised! And who to me preferred? 'Twere best He shun my path. The rifle bird4 To whom the serpent glides unheard, Not surer rues the fatal spring When vainly flaps its struggling wing Than he shall rue the luckless hour He trifled with Muntookan's power. If curse availeth, mine shall cling Worse than the soul's imagining. Ye powers who rule the midnight air,5 Fell spirits! Hear, and grant my prayer! His be the seared and lifeless heart Jiist skilled to view its joys depart, But sunk in hopelessness to save Its dearest blossom from the grave; Till nerveless, sapless as the oak Scathed by the livid lightning stroke, Fostering the canker which destroys. His heart's core wither ere he dies."