A Thought of the Nile
James Henry Leigh Hunt 1784 (Southgate, London) – 1859
It flows through old hushed Egypt and its sands,
Like some grave mighty thought threading a dream,
And times and things, as in that vision, seem
Keeping along it their eternal stands,--
Caves, pillars, pyramids, the shepherd bands
That roamed through the young world, the glory extreme
Of high Sesostris, and that southern beam,
The laughing queen that caught the world's great hands.
Then comes a mightier silence, stern and strong,
As of a world left empty of its throng,
And the void weighs on us; and then we wake,
And hear the fruitful stream lapsing along
Twixt villages, and think how we shall take
Our own calm journey on for human sake.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 94 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBAABBA CCDCDD |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 661 |
Words | 116 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
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"A Thought of the Nile" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/20104/a-thought-of-the-nile>.
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