Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SPELL OF EGYPT, by CHARLES V. H. ROBERTS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SPELL OF EGYPT, by                    
First Line: There's a splendid hush about this place
Last Line: Of romance and of history that breathe within thy bosom?
Subject(s): Cleopatra, Queen Of Egypt (69-30 B.c.); Egypt; Pyramids; Spells


There's a splendid hush about this place,—
A seal upon these ancient mysteries
Of Nile and star and Cleopatra's face.

O mighty Pyramid, empurpled in thine
Omnipotence! Thou art not the work
Of mortal man, but the huge Conception of a spirit
Diadem'd upon the Sand of Time.

Mosques with your passion for prayer,
Sphinx with thy passion for silence,
Bazaars with your passion for gain,
Streets with your passion for music
And pleasure—enter ye all into my soul,
That I may feel my first infiltration of another life.

Egypt!
Why dost thou engrave thyself
So strangely on the tablets of my mind?
Dost thou channel through my veins to gain a dream
Or to regain lost dreams of old?

Art thou here to help me lose a creeping sorrow,
Or to recreate in me the rapturous ecstasy of bygone passion;
Or art thou present merely to make me understand the treasures
Of Romance and of History that breathe within thy bosom?





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