In the shade of the pyramids I knelt and wrote on the sand, While with softly drooping, veiled lids, You watched in the shade of those pyramids The movements of my hand. I wrote of the fall of Troy, I wrote of the Grecian ships, I wrote of Adonis the lovely boy, And of winged Psyche's virgin joy As she clung to Eros' lips. I wrote of the Syrian pearls, Of Herod, the Jewish king. I wrote of Salome's tossing curls And the pale lips sweeter than any girl's, Of her blood-stained offering. But all the while you kept, Dark-lowered your veiled lids. You neither laughed nor murmured nor wept; A watcher would surely have dreamed you slept In the shade of those pyramids. But when I wrote in the sand A little unlegended name, A human unhistoried name, With a bitter cry and uplifted hand You rose and over that famished land, Fled away like a flame. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JIM, WHO RAN AWAY FROM HIS NURSE, AND WAS EATEN BY A LION by HILAIRE BELLOC QUATRAIN: FATE by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE BENCH OF BOORS by HERMAN MELVILLE FULFILLMENT by ROBERT MALISE BOWYER NICHOLS FOR CHARLIE'S SAKE by JOHN WILLIAMSON PALMER WASHINGTON MONUMENT BY NIGHT by CARL SANDBURG |