THE sun, a scarabaeus of bronze gold, Slowly ascends the heaven's eastern wall; The immemorial palm-trees, towering tall, Where Nile rolls seaward, fold on tawny fold, Are mirrored in the water; and behold, Above them, hued like skies at evenfall, Flamingoes in their flight majestical Wing as they winged ere yet the world waxed old! Silence and Death and Time and all things hoar Brood here, -- and man, how like a shade he seems, Now seen, now gone, ephemera of an hour! Pharaoh and Ptolemy, mighty names of yore, To-day are but as sounds dim-heard in dreams, And but as shards the remnants of their power! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MERCILES BEAUTE; A TRIPLE ROUNDEL: 2. REJECTION by GEOFFREY CHAUCER THE AIM WAS SONG by ROBERT FROST THE TEACHER by LESLIE PINCKNEY HILL THE PHILOSOPHER TOAD by REBECCA S. REED NICHOLS THE MORAL FABLES: THE TALE OF THE TWO MICE by AESOP PSALM 23 by HENRY WILLIAMS BAKER |