| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Oblivion | | By Wilfrid Wilson Gibson |
| | | NEAR the great pyramid, unshadowed, white, | |
| With apex piercing the white noon-day blaze, | |
| Swathed in white robes beneath the blinding rays, | |
| Lie sleeping Bedouins drenched in white-hot light. | |
| About them, searing to the tingling sight, | 5 |
| Swims the white dazzle of the desert ways, | |
| Where the sense shudders, witless and adaze, | |
| In a white void with neither depth nor height. | |
| |
| Within the black core of the pyramid, | |
| Beneath the weight of sunless centuries, | 10 |
| Lapt in dead night King Cheops lies asleep: | |
| Yet in the darkness of his chamber hid | |
| He knows no black oblivion more deep | |
| Than that blind white oblivion of noon skies. | | | | |
|
|
