Safe from the fan of time's long winnowing Remains this treasured thing -- This cherished ivory palette of a child, The daughter of a king! And to oblivion unreconciled, The little cakes of color, darkening, Still to the ivory cling. They sealed within the princess' painted tomb Her childish treasures under Horus' wing; Beneath the hieroglyphics in the room Laid by her sandals, robe and ring, Necklace and dolls and glimmering Fresh lotus flowers, To comfort her in those first lonely hours. And lest she be confused By shadow-fears and wander timorous, They set beside her gold sarcophagus, What she had clung to last -- her paints, half-used. With these her little hands were fashioning The pictures of her far Egyptian day, -- Crude pyramid and palm and hawk on wing -- Before Osiris called her from her play. And faithfully, to death unreconciled, The yellowed palette waits her wakening, This cherished ivory treasure of a child, The daughter of a king! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...KILLED IN ACTION by ISAAC ROSENBERG HAPPY WIND by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES PRO PATRIA MORI by THOMAS MOORE TWO SONGS FROM THE PERSIAN: 1 by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH LONG LIVE LIFE by JACQUES BARON THE PUZZLE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |