| |
| THE WORLD was at his feet … | |
| But overhead, the stars! | |
| From Luxor’s roof he saw their light on pillared Karnak fall, | |
| And knew what gods and ghosts of monarchs | |
| Alien to his blood | 5 |
| Kept guard among the shadows there … | |
| While far upon the breathing plain | |
| Hushed Memnon brooded, holding at his heart | |
| A golden cry that trembled for the dawn … | |
| Upon a temple’s roof at Thebes the young Moses stood | 10 |
| In commune with his dreams … | |
| |
| A kingdom at his feet … | |
| Fostered of Pharaoh’s daughter, | |
| And a Prince in Egypt: | |
| In statecraft, priestcraft, lifecraft, skilled: | 15 |
| Wise in his youth, and strong, and conscious of his powers: | |
| Dowered with the patience and the passion that are genius: | |
| Ambitious, favored, subtle, sure and swift— | |
| Already Prince in Egypt! | |
| And later, anything he willed … | 20 |
| Fledged early, with a soaring instinct in his wings. | |
| |
| He mused, and for an infinite moment | |
| All the world streamed by him in a mist … | |
| Cities and ships and nations, | |
| Temples and armies, melted to a mist, and swirling past beneath the stars: | 25 |
| And a faint tumult filled his ears of trumpets and the clash of brazen arms, | |
| |
| The wind and sound of empire, | |
| And he felt the mighty pulse of his own thought and will transmuted to the tread of marching hosts | |
| That shook the granite hills, | |
| And saw chained kings cringe by his chariots, lion-drawn … | 30 |
| And felt himself on Seti’s throne and crowned with Seti’s crown, | |
| And all earth’s rhythms beating to his sense of law, | |
| And half earth’s purple blood, if so he would, poured out to dye his robes with deeper splendor … | |
| And all the iron delight of power was his … | |
| This Egypt was a weapon to his hand, | 35 |
| This life was buoyant air, and his the eagle’s plume. | |
| For one measureless moment this vision moved and glittered, | |
| Rushing by … | |
| Master of men he knew himself; he thrilled; | |
| There an empire at his feet. | 40 |
| |
| But overhead, a God … | |
| Implacable divinity that, as he looked, was of a sudden manifest | |
| In all the burning stars … | |
| Relentless, searching spirit, | |
| Cruel holiness that smote him with the agony of love, | 45 |
| Stern sweetness piercing to the soul, | |
| Silence articulate that turned the universe to one unspoken word, | |
| Violent serenity that plucked at his roots of being … | |
| And a voice that answered him before he questioned it … | |
| For one eternal instant Moses stood, | 50 |
| The cup of empire lifted to his lips, | |
| And struggled with the God that is not if we are not He … | |
| |
| And then … descended from the temple’s roof, | |
| And cast his princely trappings off, | |
| And took his slow way through the shadowed town | 55 |
| Unto the quarter where an outcast people and oppressed | |
| Labored beneath the lash. | |
| And put their lives and hopes into the bricks because there was no straw, | |
| And cast his lot in with those sickly slaves, | |
| To lead them, if he might, from bondage … | 60 |
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