 | Forest Songs and Other Poems |  |
100
A DREAM OF EGYPT.
“Where's my Serpent of old Nile?”
Night sends forth many an eagle-wingèd dream
To soar through regions never known by day;
And I by one of these was rapt away
To where the sun-burnt Nile, with opulent stream
Makes teem the desert sand. My pomp supreme
Enriched the noon; I spurned earth's common clay;
For I was Antony, and by me lay
That Snake whose sting was bliss. Nations did seem
But camels for the burden of our joy;
Kings were our slaves; our wishes glowed in the air
And grew fruition; night grew day, day night,
Lest the high bacchanal of our loves should cloy;
We reined the tiger, Life, with flower-crowned hair,
Abashlessly abandoned to delight.
| Forest Songs and Other Poems | |