Classic Poem

The moon on Nilus sheds resplendent light;
And see, the old death-city stirs amain,
Where kings their hieratic pose maintain
In bandelette and funeral coating dight.

Unnumbered as in days of Ramses' might
The hosts, all noiseless forming mystic train,
(A multitude granitic dreams enchain)
With stately, ordered ranks, march in the night.

They leave the hieroglyphic walls' array
Behind the Bari, which the priests convey,
Of Ammon-Ra, the sun's almighty head;

And sphinxes, and the rams with disk of red,
Uprise at once in wild amaze as they
Break with a start from their eternal bed.