Classic Poem

A silver sphinx that gazes down on earth,
Whose stony smile,
Moses beheld ere yet the Law was writ,
And love had snared the Lady of the Nile.

Cæsar and Shakespeare saw the selfsame moon
As you and I;
Monarch and minstrel long have gone their way,
Still glows the great enigma of the sky.

Lover and lily crumble into dust,
Everything wanes;
All earthly wonders vanish one by one,
Only the moon's old mystery remains!