|
|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SAKIYEH, by MATHILDE BLIND Poet's Biography
First Line: How long shall man be nature's fool?' man cries
Last Line: Bound blindfold to the groaning wheel of time.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lake, Claude
Subject(s): Egypt; Water-wheels
First Line: How long shall man be nature's fool?' man cries
Last Line: Bound blindfold to the groaning wheel of time.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lake, Claude
Subject(s): Egypt; Water-wheels
"HOW long shall Man be Nature's fool?" Man cries;
"Be like those great, gaunt oxen, drilled and bound,
Inexorably driven round and round
To turn the water-wheel with bandaged eyes?
And as they trudge beneath Egyptian skies,
Watering the wrinkled desert's beggared ground,
The hoarse Sâkiyeh's lamentable sound
Fills all the land as with a people's sighs?"
Poor Brutes! Who in unconsciousness sublime,
Replenishing the ever-empty jars,
Endow the waste with palms and harvest gold:
And men, who move in rhythm with moving stars,
Should shrink to give the borrowed lives they hold:
Bound blindfold to the groaning wheel of Time.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
THE WATERWHEEL by ELEANOR VAN WINKLE
THE MYSTIC'S VISION by MATHILDE BLIND
A CARNIVAL EPISODE by MATHILDE BLIND
A CHILD'S FANCY by MATHILDE BLIND
A HIGHLAND VILLAGE by MATHILDE BLIND