And Palace courts whose constellated lights

Shine on black slaves and cringing satellites.

Eclipsing with her fate

Each power and rival state

With her unnumbered stretch of generations,

A sand-surrounded isle

Fed by the bounteous Nile,

Egypt confronts Sahara—sphinx of nations;

Taught by the floods that make or mar her shore,

She scans the stars and hoards mysterious lore.

Hers are imperial halls

With strangely scriptured walls

And long perspectives of memorial places,

Where the hushed daylight glows

On mute colossal rows

Of clawed wild beasts featured with female faces,

[31]

And realmless kings inane whose stony eyes

Have watched the hour-glass of the centuries.

There in the rainless sands

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