Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Africa: Vol. XXIV. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia | | The Colossi | | Thomas Gold Appleton (1812–1884) |
| | | BENIGNANT, calm, majestically grave, | |
| Earth’s childhood smiling in their lifted eyes, | |
| While the hoar wisdom which the dead years gave | |
| Upon each placid brow engraven lies— | |
| Two on the plain and four beside the wave | 5 |
| Keep watch and ward above the centuries. | |
| As is the sand which flies, our little lives | |
| Glitter and whirl a moment and are gone; | |
| A day it lives, then to Oblivion drives | |
| The haughtiest empire and the loftiest throne: | 10 |
| Swiftly to all the appointed hour arrives, | |
| Men, nations pass, but they remain alone, | |
| Mute in the azure silence of these skies, | |
| Immortal childhood looking from their eyes. | | | | |
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