The Witness of the Dust
Voices are crying from the dust of Tyre,From Baalbec and the stones of Babylon—“We raised our pillars upon Self-Desire,And perished from the large gaze of the sun.”Eternity was on the pyramid,And immortality on Greece and Rome;But in them all the ancient Traitor hid,And so they tottered like unstable foam.There was no substance in their soaring hopes:The voice of Thebes is now a desert cry;A spider bars the road with filmy ropes,Where once the feet of Carthage thundered by.A bittern booms where once fair Helen laughed;A thistle nods where once the Forum poured;A lizard lifts and listens on a shaft,Where once of old the Colosseum roared.No house can stand, no kingdom can endureBuilt on the crumbling rock of Self-Desire:Nothing is Living Stone, nothing is sure,That is not whitened in the Social Fire.
Voices are crying from the dust of Tyre,From Baalbec and the stones of Babylon—“We raised our pillars upon Self-Desire,And perished from the large gaze of the sun.”Eternity was on the pyramid,And immortality on Greece and Rome;But in them all the ancient Traitor hid,And so they tottered like unstable foam.There was no substance in their soaring hopes:The voice of Thebes is now a desert cry;A spider bars the road with filmy ropes,Where once the feet of Carthage thundered by.A bittern booms where once fair Helen laughed;A thistle nods where once the Forum poured;A lizard lifts and listens on a shaft,Where once of old the Colosseum roared.No house can stand, no kingdom can endureBuilt on the crumbling rock of Self-Desire:Nothing is Living Stone, nothing is sure,That is not whitened in the Social Fire.
Voices are crying from the dust of Tyre,From Baalbec and the stones of Babylon—“We raised our pillars upon Self-Desire,And perished from the large gaze of the sun.”
Voices are crying from the dust of Tyre,
From Baalbec and the stones of Babylon—
“We raised our pillars upon Self-Desire,
And perished from the large gaze of the sun.”
Eternity was on the pyramid,And immortality on Greece and Rome;But in them all the ancient Traitor hid,And so they tottered like unstable foam.
Eternity was on the pyramid,
And immortality on Greece and Rome;
But in them all the ancient Traitor hid,
And so they tottered like unstable foam.
There was no substance in their soaring hopes:The voice of Thebes is now a desert cry;A spider bars the road with filmy ropes,Where once the feet of Carthage thundered by.
There was no substance in their soaring hopes:
The voice of Thebes is now a desert cry;
A spider bars the road with filmy ropes,
Where once the feet of Carthage thundered by.
A bittern booms where once fair Helen laughed;A thistle nods where once the Forum poured;A lizard lifts and listens on a shaft,Where once of old the Colosseum roared.
A bittern booms where once fair Helen laughed;
A thistle nods where once the Forum poured;
A lizard lifts and listens on a shaft,
Where once of old the Colosseum roared.
No house can stand, no kingdom can endureBuilt on the crumbling rock of Self-Desire:Nothing is Living Stone, nothing is sure,That is not whitened in the Social Fire.
No house can stand, no kingdom can endure
Built on the crumbling rock of Self-Desire:
Nothing is Living Stone, nothing is sure,
That is not whitened in the Social Fire.