BEFORE there was in Egypt any sound Of those who reared a more prodigious means For the self-heavy sleep of kings and queens Than hitherto had mocked the most renowned,-- Unvisioned here and waiting to be found, Alone, amid remote and older scenes, You loomed above ancestral evergreens Before there were the first of us around. And when the last of us, if we know how, See farther from ourselves than we do now, Assured with other sight than heretofore That we have done our mortal best and worst,-- Your calm will be the same as when the first Assyrians went howling south to war. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOUISA MAY ALCOTT by LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON COME UP FROM THE FIELDS FATHER by WALT WHITMAN FANNIE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH A STREET SKETCH by JOSEPH ASHBY-STERRY CALMNESS OF THE SUBLIME by PHILIP JAMES BAILEY SUNSET ACROSS THE LAKE by AUGUSTA M. BARNEY THE EVENING OF THE YEAR by MATHILDE BLIND |