The Egyptian Tomb Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGG HHIIJJKKLLMMNNOOPP QAAQAOORSTTUV WWAAXXYYIIZZ| Pomp of Egypt's elder day | A |
| Shade of the mighty passed away | A |
| Whose giant works still frown sublime | B |
| 'Mid the twilight shades of Time | B |
| Fanes of sculpture vast and rude | C |
| That strew the sandy solitude | C |
| Lo before our startled eyes | D |
| As at a wizard's wand ye rise | D |
| Glimmering larger through the gloom | E |
| While on the secrets of the tomb | E |
| Rapt in other times we gaze | F |
| The Mother Queen of ancient days | F |
| Her mystic symbol in her hand | G |
| Great Isis seems herself to stand | G |
| - | |
| From mazy vaults high arched and dim | H |
| Hark heard ye not Osiris' hymn | H |
| And saw ye not in order dread | I |
| The long procession of the dead | I |
| Forms that the night of years concealed | J |
| As by a flash are here revealed | J |
| Chiefs who sang the victor song | K |
| Sceptred kings a shadowy throng | K |
| From slumber of three thousand years | L |
| Each as in light and life appears | L |
| Stern as of yore Yes vision vast | M |
| Three thousand years have silent passed | M |
| Suns of empire risen and set | N |
| Whose story Time can ne'er forget | N |
| Time in the morning of her pride | O |
| Immense along the Nile's green side | O |
| The City of the Sun appeared | P |
| And her gigantic image reared | P |
| - | |
| As Memnon like a trembling string | Q |
| When the sun with rising ray | A |
| Streaked the lonely desert gray | A |
| Sent forth its magic murmuring | Q |
| That just was heard then died away | A |
| So passed O Thebes thy morning pride | O |
| Thy glory was the sound that died | O |
| Dark city of the desolate | R |
| Once thou wert rich and proud and great | S |
| This busy peopled isle was then | T |
| A waste or roamed by savage men | T |
| Whose gay descendants now appear | U |
| To mark thy wreck of glory here | V |
| - | |
| Phantom of that city old | W |
| Whose mystic spoils I now behold | W |
| A kingdom's sepulchre oh say | A |
| Shall Albion's own illustrious day | A |
| Thus darkly close Her power her fame | X |
| Thus pass away a shade a name | X |
| The Mausoleum murmured as I spoke | Y |
| A spectre seemed to rise like towering smoke | Y |
| It answered not but pointed as it fled | I |
| To the black carcase of the sightless dead | I |
| Once more I heard the sounds of earthly strife | Z |
| And the streets ringing to the stir of life | Z |
William Lisle Bowles
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Egyptian Tomb poem by William Lisle Bowles
Best Poems of William Lisle Bowles