HOSE ruined shrines and towers that seem The relics of a splendid dream, Amid whose fairy loneliness Nought but the lapwing's cry is heard, Nought seen but (when the shadows flitting Fast from the moon, unsheath its gleam) Some purple-winged sultana sitting Upon a column motionless, And glittering like an idol bird! MOORE. ORTENTOUS Egypt! I in thee behold From thee derived his creed. The arts from thee Of the scorched Orient, in caution where Lurks the Chinese. Thou wondrous Egypt! through I trace. In thee to the inquirer's gaze Nature uncovered first the ample breast Of science that contemplates, measuring, Heaven's vault, and tracks the bright stars' circling course. From out the bosom of thine opulence And glory vast imagination spreads Her wings. In thine immortal works I find Result not from unconscious mechanism. EGYPT. Thebes is in ruins, Memphis is but dust, Columns of splintered porphyry, remains And those worse Vandals of the Seine, hast saved! Of Moeris, Amasis, Sesostris lie; And the immortal pyramids contend In durability against the world; Planted 'midst centuries' shade, Time 'gainst their tops Scarce grazes his ne'er-resting iron wing. In Egypt to perfection did the arts. Of the fair temple of geometry Was in portentous Egypt laid. The doors Of vasty nature by geometry Are opened; to her fortress she conducts The sage. The globe I measure; only by her aid Couldst thou, learned Kepler, the eternal laws Of the fixed stars discover; and with her Grasps the philosopher the ellipse immense, 285 IGH on the summit of the flowery steep, Light without weakness, lovely in decay; What, though wild weeds entwine their tissued shade |