Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GOING HOME; OR DEATH IN THE THEBAID by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER

First Line: THE ANCIENT RIVER GLIMMERED IN ITS BED
Last Line: NOR HER CHEEK FLUSH, TO FIND HERSELF AT HOME.
Subject(s): DEATH; HOMECOMING; DEAD, THE;

The ancient river glimmered in its bed,
High overhead the stars of Egypt burned,
When our slow-dying Edith join'd the dead;
She whom the Arab and the Nubian mourned:
How in the shadow of old Thebes we wept,
And down the long-drawn Nile from day to day!
Her sweet face gone - her bright hair hid away -
Save what the ring or gleaming locket kept;
And, when we felt the Midland waters rise
Beneath our keel, and England nearer come -
'Mid our forecasting questions and replies,
Back came the sorrow like a sad surprise;
Those dear white cliffs would never greet her eyes,
Nor her cheek flush, to find herself at home.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net