The Nile

It flows through old hush'd Ægypt and its sands,

Like some grave mighty thought threading a dream;

And times and things, as in a vision, seem

Keeping along it their eternal stands.--

Caves, pillars, pyramids, the shepherd bands

That roam'd through the young world, the glory extreme

Of high Sesostris, and that southern beam,

The laughing queen that caught the world's great hands.

Then comes a mightier silence, stern and strong,

As of a world left empty of its throng,

And the void weighs on us; and then we wake,

And hear the fruitful stream lapsing long

'Twixt villages, and think how we shall take

Our own calm journey on for human sake.