Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE NILE by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT

Poet Analysis

First Line: IT FLOWS THROUGH OLD HUSHED EGYPT AND ITS SANDS
Last Line: OUR OWN CALM JOURNEY ON FOR HUMAN SAKE.
Subject(s): NILE (RIVER);

IT flows through old, hushed Egypt and its
sands,
Like some grave, mighty thought threading a
dream;
And times and things, as in that vision, seem
Keeping along it their eternal stands, --
Caves, pillars, pyramids, the shepherd bands
That roamed 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 along
'Twixt villages, and think how we shall take
Our own calm journey on for human sake.



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