• Wherefore these revels that my dull eyes greet?
    These dancers, dancing at my fleshless feet;
    The harpers, harping vainly at my ears
    Deaf to the world, lo, thrice a thousand years!

    Time was when even I was blithe: I knew
    The murmur of the flowing wave, where grew
    The lean, lithe rushes; I have heard the moan
    Of Nilus in prophetic...

  • And thou hast walked about (how strange a story!
      In Thebes’s streets three thousand years ago,
    When the Memnonium was in all its glory,
      And time had not begun to overthrow
    Those temples, palaces, and piles stupendous,
    Of which the very ruins are tremendous.

    Speak! for thou long enough hast acted dummy;
      Thou hast a tongue,—come,...