The Tombs Of The Kings Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AA BB CC DD EE FF GG HH II DD JJ KK LM BB NN OO PP OO QQ FF OO OO RR NN OO SS TT RR OO PP RR GO OO GG RR RR FF UU VV OO OO PP RR RR RR OO

Where the mummied Kings of Egypt wrapped in linen fold on foldA
Couched for ages in their coffins crowned with crowns of dusky goldA
-
Lie in subterranean chambers biding to the day of doomB
Counterfeit life's hollow semblance in each mazy mountain tombB
-
Grisly in their gilded coffins mocking masks of skin and boneC
Yet remain in change unchanging balking Nature of her ownC
-
Mured in mighty Mausoleums walled in from the night and dayD
Lo the mortal Kings of Egypt hold immortal Death at bayD
-
For so spake the Kings of Egypt those colossal ones whose handE
Held the peoples from Pitasa to the Kheta's conquered landE
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Who with flash and clash of lances and war chariots stormed and wonF
Many a town of stiff necked Syria to high towering AskalonF
-
We have been the faithful stewards of the deathless gods on highG
We have built them starry temples underneath the starry skyG
-
We have smitten rebel nations as a child is whipped with rodsH
We the living incarnation of imperishable godsH
-
Shall we suffer Death to trample us to nothingness and mustI
We be scattered as the whirlwind blows about the desert dustI
-
No Death shall not dare come near us nor Corruption shall not layD
Hands upon our sacred bodies incorruptible as dayD
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Let us put a bit and bridle and rein in Time's headlong courseJ
Let us ride him through the ages as a master rides his horseJ
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On the changing earth unchanging let us bide till Time shall endK
Till reborn in blest Osiris mortal with Immortal blendK
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Yea so spake the Kings of Egypt they whose lightest word was lawL
At whose nod the far off nations cowered stricken dumb with aweM
-
And Fate left the haughty rulers to work out their monstrous doomB
And embalmed with myrrh and ointments they were carried to the tombB
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Through the gate of Bab el Molouk where the sulphur hills lie bareN
Where no green thing casts a shadow in the noon's tremendous glareN
-
Where the unveiled Blue of heaven in its bare intensityO
Weighs upon the awe struck spirit with the world's immensityO
-
Through the Vale of Desolation where no beast or bird draws breathP
To the Coffin Hills of Tuat the Metropolis of DeathP
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Down down down into the darkness where on either hand dread FateO
In the semblance of a serpent watches by the dolorous gateO
-
Down down down into the darkness where no gleam of sun or starQ
Sheds its purifying radiance from the living world afarQ
-
Where in labyrinthine windings darkly hidden down and downF
Proudly on his marble pillow with old Egypt's double crownF
-
And his mien of cold commandment grasping still his staff of stateO
Rests the mightiest of the Pharaohs whom the world surnamed the GreatO
-
Swathed in fine Sidonian linen crossed hands folded on the breastO
There the mummied Kings of Egypt lie within each painted chestO
-
And upon their dusky foreheads Pleiades of flaming gemsR
Glowing through the nether darkness flash from luminous diademsR
-
Where is Memphis Like a Mirage melted into empty airN
But these royal gems yet sparkle richly on their raven hairN
-
Where is Thebes in all her glory with her gates of beaten goldO
Where Syen or that marvel Heliopolis of oldO
-
Where is Edfu Where Abydos Where those pillared towns of yoreS
Whose auroral temples glittered by the Nile's thick peopled shoreS
-
Gone as evanescent cloudlands Alplike in the afterglowT
But these Kings hold fast their bodies of four thousand years agoT
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Sealed up in their Mausoleums in the bowels of the hillsR
There they hide from dissolution and Death's swiftly grinding millsR
-
Scattering fire Ur us serpents guard the Tombs' tremendous gateO
While Troth holds the trembling balance weighs the heart and seals its fateO
-
And a multitude of mummies in the swaddling clothes of deathP
Ferried o'er the sullen river on and on still hastenethP
-
And around them and above them blazoned on the rocky wallsR
Crowned with stars enlaced by serpents in divine processionalsR
-
Ibis headed jackal featured vulture hooded pass on highG
Gods on gods through Time's perspectives pilgrims of EternityO
-
There revealed by fitful flashes in a gloom that may be feltO
Wild Chim ras flash from darkness glittering like Orion's beltO
-
And on high o'er shining waters in their barks the gods sail byG
In the Sunboat and the Moonboat rowed across the rose hued skyG
-
Night that was before Creation watches sphinx like starred with eyesR
And the hours and days are passing and the years and centuriesR
-
But these mummied Kings of Egypt pictures of a perished raceR
Lie of Death forgotten face by immemorial faceR
-
Though the glorious sun above them burning on the naked plainF
Clothes the empty wilderness with the golden glowing grainF
-
Though the balmy Moon above them floating in the milky BlueU
Fills the empty wildernesses with a silver fall of dewU
-
Though life comes and flies unresting like the shadow which a doveV
Casts upon the Sphinx in passing for a moment from aboveV
-
Still these mummied Kings of Egypt wrapped in linen fold on foldO
Bide through the ages in their coffins crowned with crowns of dusky goldO
-
Had the sun once brushed them lightly or a breath of air they mustO
Instantaneously have crumbled into evanescent dustO
-
Pale and passive in their prisons they have conquered chained to deathP
And their lineaments look living now as when they last drew breathP
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Have they conquered Oh the pity of those Kings within their tombsR
Locked in stony isolation in those petrifying gloomsR
-
Motionless where all is motion in a rolling UniverseR
Heaven by answering their prayer turned it to a deadly curseR
-
Left them fixed where all is fluid in a world of star winged skiesR
Where in myriad transformations all things pass and nothing diesR
-
Nothing dies but what is tethered kept when Time would set it freeO
To fulfil Thought's yearning tension upward through EternityO

Mathilde Blind



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