Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Africa: Vol. XXIV. 1876–79. | | | | Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia: Nile, the River | | Memnon | | Bryan Waller Procter (1787–1874) |
| | (From Michael Angelo)
METHOUGHT I lived three thousand years ago, | |
| Somewhere in Egypt, near a pyramid; | |
| And in my dream I heard black Memnon playing: | |
| He stood twelve cubits high, and, with a voice | |
| Like thunder when it breaks on hollow shores, | 5 |
| Called on the sky, which answered. Then he awoke | |
| His marble music, and with grave sweet sounds | |
| Enchanted from her chamber the coy Dawn. | |
| He sang, too,—oh, such songs! Silence, who lay | |
| Torpid upon those wastes of level sand, | 10 |
| Stirred and grew human; from its shuddering reeds | |
| Stole forth the crocodile, and birds of blood | |
| Hung listening in the rich and burning air. | | | | |
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