MEMNON AT MIDNIGHT(Dedicated to Albert M. Bender)Methought upon the tomb-encumbered shoreI stood, of Egypt’s lone, monarchal stream,And saw immortal Memnon, throned supremeIn gloom as of that Memphian night of yore:Fold upon fold purpureal he wore,Beneath the star-borne canopy extreme—Carven of silence and colossal dream,Where waters flowed like sleep forevermore.Lo, in the darkness, thick with dust of years,How many a ghostly god around his throne,With thronging winds that were forgotten Fames,Stood, ere the dawn restore to ancient earsThe long-withholden thunder of their names,And music stilled to monumental stone.
(Dedicated to Albert M. Bender)
Methought upon the tomb-encumbered shoreI stood, of Egypt’s lone, monarchal stream,And saw immortal Memnon, throned supremeIn gloom as of that Memphian night of yore:Fold upon fold purpureal he wore,Beneath the star-borne canopy extreme—Carven of silence and colossal dream,Where waters flowed like sleep forevermore.Lo, in the darkness, thick with dust of years,How many a ghostly god around his throne,With thronging winds that were forgotten Fames,Stood, ere the dawn restore to ancient earsThe long-withholden thunder of their names,And music stilled to monumental stone.
Methought upon the tomb-encumbered shoreI stood, of Egypt’s lone, monarchal stream,And saw immortal Memnon, throned supremeIn gloom as of that Memphian night of yore:Fold upon fold purpureal he wore,Beneath the star-borne canopy extreme—Carven of silence and colossal dream,Where waters flowed like sleep forevermore.Lo, in the darkness, thick with dust of years,How many a ghostly god around his throne,With thronging winds that were forgotten Fames,Stood, ere the dawn restore to ancient earsThe long-withholden thunder of their names,And music stilled to monumental stone.
Methought upon the tomb-encumbered shoreI stood, of Egypt’s lone, monarchal stream,And saw immortal Memnon, throned supremeIn gloom as of that Memphian night of yore:Fold upon fold purpureal he wore,Beneath the star-borne canopy extreme—Carven of silence and colossal dream,Where waters flowed like sleep forevermore.
Methought upon the tomb-encumbered shore
I stood, of Egypt’s lone, monarchal stream,
And saw immortal Memnon, throned supreme
In gloom as of that Memphian night of yore:
Fold upon fold purpureal he wore,
Beneath the star-borne canopy extreme—
Carven of silence and colossal dream,
Where waters flowed like sleep forevermore.
Lo, in the darkness, thick with dust of years,How many a ghostly god around his throne,With thronging winds that were forgotten Fames,Stood, ere the dawn restore to ancient earsThe long-withholden thunder of their names,And music stilled to monumental stone.
Lo, in the darkness, thick with dust of years,
How many a ghostly god around his throne,
With thronging winds that were forgotten Fames,
Stood, ere the dawn restore to ancient ears
The long-withholden thunder of their names,
And music stilled to monumental stone.