Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ODE AT ASSOUAN ON THE NILE, by HERBERT TRENCH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ODE AT ASSOUAN ON THE NILE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In your amphitheatres of flood-worn rock
Last Line: That thing which fills the craving of its heart.
Subject(s): Aswan, Egypt; Assuan, Egypt; Asswan, Egypt


I

IN your amphitheatres of flood-worn rock,
Granite escarpments that the desert rings
Of quarries whence gray Egypt hewed her kings --
Hail! stark beginnings that the fool can mock --
Sun-obelisks half-hewn, prone architraves --
Hail to you, every scarred and prostrate block!
And hail to you, poor plot of English graves
Ranked in the sun, a little martial flock!
What sudden-quencht, impossible command
Say, were you uttering to this drift of sand
For England? Your command shall be fulfilled.
A temple housing kingdoms doth she build
Whose beams are ye, and whose foundations wide
The bones of sons; and you therein shall bide!

II

There shall be lifted from the Earth at last
One Temple, O my Soul, consummate, fair,
Whiter than lightning, rock-set, and so vast
That the hopes even of the young may enter there!
Round shall it be as that horizon old
About its steeps and clear dominions seen,
And girt with columns in the antique mould,
And doors, one for each nation, stand between
Statues heroic -- doors, yea, numberless
And open. Yellow hands and black and white
Shall cast them -- so that every race may press
Up always to that altar never cold!
III

There shall be none cast out -- nor any fears
Fraternal. Unknown music shall aspire
About that altar, nor shall human tears
Quench the high flame, or still the trembling choir
Of man ascendant. Chiefest symbol there,
Whereon the eyes of all the host shall wait,
The winged chalice of the holy sun
Lifted above the dome from gate to gate.
Its only priesthood thoughts, that range on high
In the soft and changeful vestures of the sky;
And the slow-built, straggling village of this ball
Thither shall mount to worship One, the All;
And every soul find there, ere it depart,
That thing which fills the craving of its heart.





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