The Nile
It flows through old hush'd Ægypt and its sands,
Like some grave mighty thought threading a dream;
And times and things, as in a vision, seem
Keeping along it their eternal stands.--
Caves, pillars, pyramids, the shepherd bands
That roam'd through the young world, the glory extreme
Of high Sesostris, and that southern beam,
The laughing queen that caught the world's great hands.
Then comes a mightier silence, stern and strong,
As of a world left empty of its throng,
And the void weighs on us; and then we wake,
And hear the fruitful stream lapsing long
'Twixt villages, and think how we shall take
Our own calm journey on for human sake.
