Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Africa: Vol. XXIV. 1876–79. | | | | Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia: Meroë, Nubia | | Meroë | | Nicholas Michell (1807–1880) |
| | (From Ruins of Many Lands)
FAR down in Nubia’s waste gray temples stand, | |
| Tottering with age, each doorway choked with sand; | |
| And further on, in groups against the sky, | |
| Long lines of pyramids ascend on high, | |
| By all forsaken, save by beasts of prey, | 5 |
| And that dark bird, a god in ancient day, | |
| Whose voice still sounds, as shadowy twilight falls, | |
| Like a ghost’s wail along those lonely walls. | |
| And here stood Ethiop’s city, once arrayed | |
| In power and pomp, that sun-bright Afric swayed; | 10 |
| Here Ammon first bade listening nations quail, | |
| And Isis wore her dim mysterious veil— | |
| Home of young Learning! cradle of each art! | |
| Where keen Discovery traced her mazy chart,— | |
| Land, far and wide, that sent adventurers forth, | 15 |
| Peopled the South, refined the savage North, | |
| Launched her bold pilots o’er the Indian wave, | |
| And placed her gods in many a temple cave. | | | | |
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