There's a splendid hush about this place,— A seal upon these ancient mysteries Of Nile and star and Cleopatra's face. O mighty Pyramid, empurpled in thine Omnipotence! Thou art not the work Of mortal man, but the huge Conception of a spirit Diadem'd upon the Sand of Time. Mosques with your passion for prayer, Sphinx with thy passion for silence, Bazaars with your passion for gain, Streets with your passion for music And pleasure—enter ye all into my soul, That I may feel my first infiltration of another life. Egypt! Why dost thou engrave thyself So strangely on the tablets of my mind? Dost thou channel through my veins to gain a dream Or to regain lost dreams of old? Art thou here to help me lose a creeping sorrow, Or to recreate in me the rapturous ecstasy of bygone passion; Or art thou present merely to make me understand the treasures Of Romance and of History that breathe within thy bosom? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHAMBER MUSIC: 32 by JAMES JOYCE SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: MRS. KESSLER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE MEASURE OF THE YEAR by JAMES GALVIN IMPELLED by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON WHEN I AM DEAD by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON |