From out the light of many a mightier day,

From Pharaonic splendour, Memphian gloom,

And from the night aeonian of the tomb

They brought him forth, to meet the modern ray,—

Upon his brow the unbroken seal of clay,

While gods have gone to a forgotten doom,

And desolation and the dust assume

Temple and cot immingling in decay.

From out the everlasting womb sublime

Of cyclopean death, within a land

Of tombs and cities rotting in the sun,

He is reborn to mock the might of time,

While kings have built against Oblivion

With walls and columns of the windy sand.