THE sun, a scarabaeus of bronze gold, Slowly ascends the heaven's eastern wall; The immemorial palm-trees, towering tall, Where Nile rolls seaward, fold on tawny fold, Are mirrored in the water; and behold, Above them, hued like skies at evenfall, Flamingoes in their flight majestical Wing as they winged ere yet the world waxed old! Silence and Death and Time and all things hoar Brood here, -- and man, how like a shade he seems, Now seen, now gone, ephemera of an hour! Pharaoh and Ptolemy, mighty names of yore, To-day are but as sounds dim-heard in dreams, And but as shards the remnants of their power! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WOUNDED CUPID. SONG by ANACREON THE BETTER PART by MATTHEW ARNOLD TO A BLOCKHEAD by ALEXANDER POPE EVE by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE FALL OF JERUSALEM by ALFRED TENNYSON SONNET ON CATHERINE WORDSWORTH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE DOVE by ABUL HASAN OF SEVILLE |