The Poetical Works of George Barlow In Ten [Eleven] Volumes |
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| III. |
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SONNET III
CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE
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| IX. |
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| XI. |
 | The Poetical Works of George Barlow |  |
89
SONNET III
CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE
Ah! longest thou, grim obelisk beside
Our eddying muddy Thames, for days of yore
When by a sun-kissed smooth far other shore
Thou watchedst the dim brown-sailed boats collide,
Midmost the Nile's broad reptile-haunted tide,
And heardest the strange desert monsters roar?
What scenes thou hast marked! what galleys with gold oar
And silken perfumed sail thou hast descried!
Our eddying muddy Thames, for days of yore
When by a sun-kissed smooth far other shore
Thou watchedst the dim brown-sailed boats collide,
Midmost the Nile's broad reptile-haunted tide,
And heardest the strange desert monsters roar?
What scenes thou hast marked! what galleys with gold oar
And silken perfumed sail thou hast descried!
And now thou art here, and round about thee flows
The breathless life of London. Thou art torn
From thine ancestral measureless repose:
Us thou regardest with Egyptian scorn:
What dateless dreams are in thine heart who knows?
Dreams of the princes and the gods of morn.
The breathless life of London. Thou art torn
From thine ancestral measureless repose:
Us thou regardest with Egyptian scorn:
What dateless dreams are in thine heart who knows?
Dreams of the princes and the gods of morn.
| The Poetical Works of George Barlow | |