THE EGYPTIAN WAKES

I woke at night in my eternal tomb

The desert sands had hid a thousand years,

And heard the Nile-crier across the gloom

Calling, "The flood has come! beseech the gods!"

I rose in haste, as one who blindly hears,

And sought the barterers of grain and wine

Culled for the praise and service of divine

Great Isis, by the slave who for her plods.

But as I passed along, woe! what was this,

Strange faces and strange fashions and strange fanes

Standing upon the midnight; Oh, the pains

That swept across my startled thought's abyss!

I moaned. My body crumbled into dust.

And then my soul fled Here—where all souls must.

[Pg 50]

[Pg 50]

THE IMAM'S PARABLE

Behold, the wind of the Desert rose,

Khamsin, in a shroud of sand,

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