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| PROUD, languid lily of the sacred Nile, | |
| ’T is strange to see thee on our Western wave, | |
| Far from those sandy shores, that mile on mile, | |
| Papyrus-plumed, stretch silent as the grave. | |
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| O’er dark, mysterious pool and sheltered bay, | 5 |
| And round deep dreaming isles thy leaves expand, | |
| Where Alexandrian barges plough their way, | |
| Full-freighted, to the ancient Theban land. | |
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| On Karnak’s lofty columns thou wert seen, | |
| And spacious Luxor’s temple-palace walls, | 10 |
| Each royal Pharaoh’s emeralded queen | |
| Chose thee to deck her glittering banquet halls; | |
| |
| Yet thou art blossoming on this fairy lake | |
| As regally, amidst these common things, | |
| As on the shores where Nile’s soft ripples break, | 15 |
| As in the halls of old Egyptian kings. | |
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| Thy grace charms, day by day, men’s curious eyes, | |
| But he whose outer senses thought has probed, | |
| Looking at thee, sees stately temples rise | |
| About him, and long lines of priests, white-robed, | 20 |
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| That chant strange music as they slowly pace | |
| Dim columned aisles; hears, trembling overhead, | |
| Echoes that lose themselves in that vast space, | |
| Of Egypt’s solemn ritual for the dead. | |
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| Ay, deeper thoughts than these, though undefined, | 25 |
| Wake in the quickened soul at sight of thee, | |
| For this majestic orient faith enshrined | |
| Man’s yearning hope of immortality. | |
| |
| And thou wert Egypt’s symbol of the power | |
| That under all decaying form lies hid; | 30 |
| The old world worshipped thee, O Lotus flower, | |
| Then carved its sphinx and reared its pyramid. | |
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