SOLE Lord of Lords and very King of Kings, He sits within the desert, carved in stone; Inscrutable, colossal, and alone, And ancienter than memory of things. Graved on his front the sacred beetle clings; Disdain sits on his lips; and in a frown Scorn lives upon his forehead for a crown. The affrighted ostrich dare not dust here wings Anear this Presence. The long caravan's Dazed camels stop, and mute the Bedouins stare. This symbol of past power more than man's Presages doom. Kings look -- and Kings despair: Their sceptres tremble in their jewelled hands, And dark thrones totter in the baleful air! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SLEEPLESS NIGHT by SARA TEASDALE HUNTING SONG, FR. ZAPOLYA by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE TO LIZBIE BROWNE by THOMAS HARDY THE GODS OF THE COPYBOOK HEADINGS by RUDYARD KIPLING EPITAPHS by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH CLIO, NINE ECLOGUES IN HONOUR OF NINE VIRTUES: 2. OF GRATITUDE by WILLIAM BASSE TO --, WITH ARTHUR AND ALBINA by MATILDA BARBARA BETHAM-EDWARDS |