Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HUNDRED-GATED THEBES, by GEORGE DARLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HUNDRED-GATED THEBES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hundred-gated city! Thou
Last Line: But vast desolation!


Hundred-gated City! thou
With gryphoned arch and avenue
For denizen giants, serve they now
But to let one poor mortal through?
Wide those streaming gates of war
Ran once with many a conqueror,
Horseman and chariot, to the sound
Of the dry serpent blazoning round
Theban Sesostris' dreaded name,
Where is now the loud acclaim?
Where the trample and the roll,
Shaking staid Earth like a mole?
Sunk to a rush's sigh! -- Farewell,
Thou bleached wilderness o'erblown
By treeless winds, unscythable
Sandbanks, with peeping rocks bestrown,
That for thy barrenness seem'st to be
The bed of some retreated sea!
City of Apis, shrine and throne,
Fare thee well! dispeopled sheer
Of thy mighty millions, here
Giant thing inhabits none,
But vast Desolation!





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