Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Africa: Vol. XXIV. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia | | The Pyramids | | Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton (1809–1885) |
| | (From The Burden of Egypt)
AFTER the fantasies of many a night, | |
| After the deep desires of many a day, | |
| Rejoicing as an ancient Eremite | |
| Upon the desert’s edge at last I lay: | |
| Before me rose, in wonderful array, | 5 |
| Those works where man has rivalled Nature most, | |
| Those Pyramids, that fear no more decay | |
| Than waves inflict upon the rockiest coast, | |
| Or winds on mountain-steeps, and like endurance boast. | |
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| Fragments the deluge of old Time has left | 10 |
| Behind it in its subsidence,—long walls | |
| Of cities of their very names bereft,— | |
| Lone columns, remnants of majestic halls,— | |
| Rich-traceried chambers, where the night-dew falls,— | |
| All have I seen with feelings due, I trow, | 15 |
| Yet not with such as these memorials | |
| Of the great unremembered, that can show | |
| The mass and shape they wore four thousand years ago. | | | | |
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