Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Africa: Vol. XXIV. 1876–79. | | | | Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia: Philæ, the Island | | Philæ | | Thomas Gold Appleton (1812–1884) |
| | | O NUBIAN moon, the silence, is it thine | |
| Which follows us by this enchanted shore; | |
| Haunting thy shadows’ gloom as they incline | |
| Like basalt shafts prone on the ivory floor? | |
| A peopled silence, where old shapes divine | 5 |
| In long procession pass each sculptured door. | |
| Nor wholly voiceless, for each rustling wave, | |
| Trembling mimosa, and dim palmy crest, | |
| And the low zephyr lingering by his grave, | |
| Who needed not its dark oblivious rest, | 10 |
| Whisper—till every silent architrave, | |
| And stately pylon own the immortal Guest, | |
| And the wave bears it as its waters pour, | |
| Murmuring Osiris through the Cataract’s roar! | | | | |
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