IMMORTAL FOES

At Bedrashein between the pyramids

I saw the wingèd sun fold up his pinions

And sink into the nether world's dominions

Where Set sent ill on the Egyptian dead.

I saw the ancient Desert, that outbids

The Nile for the date-lands between them spread,

Fling over Memphis that is vanishèd,

Another shroud of sand, then bid his minions,

The winds, lie down upon their boundless bed.

I saw where temples vowed to Serapis

And granite splendours men name Pharaonic

Are kept by Time in silence and sardonic

Concealment — mummied in deep mystic tombs.

And when the stars came out in quiet bliss,

I heard Eternity with all its dooms,

Past and to come, sound softly the mnemonic

Of Death who waits all worlds that Life enwombs.