CAN YOU FORGET

Can you forget the pyramids, Persepolis and Tyre?

Can you forget the barges on the Nile,

The sculptor with his chisel and his artist-soul a-fire

With a dream of Mother Isis and her smile?

His dream that made immortal

One pillar of the portal —

‘ Tis broken now but beautiful above the yellow Nile!

Can you forget the reedy pipes, the cymbals and the songs;

The sun upon the desert like a targe;

The shaking of the sistrum and the beating of the gongs;

The fury of the spear-thrust in the charge?

O leave your milk and honey,

Your little bags of money,

And dream the ancient dream again above the yellow Nile!