To Peter Cooper
The Pyramids of Egypt, even to-day
The wonder of the world, stupendous stand
In their material greatness, and defy
Alike relentless Time and Libyan sand.
But what great thought through those grim structures smiles?
What Aspiration reared those wondrous piles?
None,---save that kings, forgotten long ago,
Might leave their worthless dust to waste below.
This Shrine thou 'st reared to Science and to Art
A nobler Thought than Egypt dreamed contains,
And every stone speaks of a regal heart
Benignant as the Nile to desert plains,
When all the arid waste it overflows,
And the parched shores grow green, and blossom as the rose.
poem by Anne Lynch Botta from Poems (1848)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Related quotes
Night Over Egypt
Wansel / Biggs)
There's a sky in the east
Over pyramids at Giza
Where there once lived a girl
She ruled the world
Then down the nile
He came with a smile
He was the king
She was the queen
Under the moonlight
Your eyes won't believe
What your mind can't concieve
Oooh
Nights over Egypt
Nights over Egypt
Nights over Egypt
Incense & myrrh
And girls that swirl
To the music
Nights over Egypt
Women fellahin
Wear veils to been seen
By no one
Take a caravan across
The sudan
Saharan fagade
Is just a mirage
Oasis in the sand
Where life once began
Under the moonlight
Your eyes won't believe
What your mind can't concieve
Nights over Egypt
Nights over Egypt
Nights over Egypt
Nights over Egypt
song performed by by Incognito
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dreamlight
Oh, I am lonely by a desert palm,
And dreaming, dreaming on the sands of thought
Oh, come to me from out the voiceless calm,
And teach me what the Nile has left untaught.
Bring to me a draught of Southern wine,
The perfume of the near-forgotten rose.
Then let me drink beside some ancient shrine,
And drinking, let my tired eyelids close.
Come near to me. The fast night-hours are few,
For every hour is fast when moons are clear.
Scatter from my hair the desert dew,
And lilt sweet Arab love-songs in my ear.
Unloose the twilight hair about thy head,
And listen to the waters deep and slow
For we are dreaming with the dreaming dead,
Dreaming where the flowers of Isis blow.
Look not to where those eagles fiercely fight,
Let peace alone be on the ancient bed.
Unbare thy beauty to the Egypt night,
And stay with me till Egypt’s dawn in red.
Then leave me when the bird of night has flown,
And touch my lips before the night-moon sinks.
I’ll ponder by these pyramids of stone,
And sit within the shadow of the Sphinx.
poem by Leon Gellert
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Nights Over Egypt
(wansel / biggs)
Theres a sky in the east
Over pyramids at giza
Where there once lived a girl
She ruled the world
Then down the nile
He came with a smile
He was the king
She was the queen
Under the moonlight
Your eyes wont believe
What your mind cant concieve
Oooh
Nights over egypt
Nights over egypt
Nights over egypt
Incense & myrrh
And girls that swirl
To the music
Nights over egypt
Women fellahin
Wear veils to been seen
By no one
Take a caravan across
The sudan
Saharan fagade
Is just a mirage
Oasis in the sand
Where life once began
Under the moonlight
Your eyes wont believe
What your mind cant concieve
Nights over egypt
Nights over egypt
Nights over egypt
Nights over egypt
song performed by by Incognito
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To the Obelisk
DURING THE GREAT FROST, 1881.
Thou sign-post of the Desert! Obelisk,
Once fronting in thy monumental pride
Egypt's fierce sun, that blazing far and wide,
Sheared her of tree and herb, till like a disk
Her waste stretched shadowless, and fraught with risk
To those who with their beasts of burden hied
Across the seas of sand until they spied
Thy pillar, and their flagging hearts grew brisk:
Now reared beside out Thames so wintry grey,
Where blocks of ice drift with the drifting stream,
Thou risest o'er the alien prospect! Say,
Yon dull, blear, rayless orb whose lurid gleam
Tinges the snow-draped ships and writhing steam,
Is this the sun which fired thine orient day?
poem by Mathilde Blind
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To The Nile
Month after month the gathered rains descend
Drenching yon secret Aethiopian dells,
And from the desert’s ice-girt pinnacles
Where Frost and Heat in strange embraces blend
On Atlas, fields of moist snow half depend.
Girt there with blasts and meteors Tempest dwells
By Nile’s aereal urn, with rapid spells
Urging those waters to their mighty end.
O’er Egypt’s land of Memory floods are level
And they are thine, O Nile--and well thou knowest
That soul-sustaining airs and blasts of evil
And fruits and poisons spring where’er thou flowest.
Beware, O Man--for knowledge must to thee,
Like the great flood to Egypt, ever be.
poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley
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Hymn For The Dedication Of Memorial Hall At Cambridge, June 23, 1874
WHERE, girt around by savage foes,
Our nurturing Mother's shelter rose,
Behold, the lofty temple stands,
Reared by her children's grateful hands!
Firm are the pillars that defy
The volleyed thunders of the sky;
Sweet are the summer wreaths that twine
With bud and flower our martyrs' shrine.
The hues their tattered colors bore
Fall mingling on the sunlit floor
Till evening spreads her spangled pall,
And wraps in shade the storied hall.
Firm were their hearts in danger's hour,
Sweet was their manhood's morning flower,
Their hopes with rainbow hues were bright,--
How swiftly winged the sudden night!
O Mother! on thy marble page
Thy children read, from age to age,
The mighty word that upward leads
Through noble thought to nobler deeds.
TRUTH, heaven-born TRUTH, their fearless guide,
Thy saints have lived, thy heroes died;
Our love has reared their earthly shrine,
Their glory be forever thine!
poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Egypt
(9/15/12)
Stories have been written, movies have been shown
Of this land of mystery the world has known.
"Egypt"
History and bibles tell of the plights
Of pyramids being built for the pharaohs delight.
Stories have been told of an unknown civilization
Who showed them how to build this nation.
It is said they came from out of space
To teach technology to the human race.
Why was these structures built in the desert sands
Where it took thousands of lives
And millions of hands.
The story of aliens is a tale you see
Which was made up for you and me.
Take a trip down the Nile
And visualize that for a while.
© L. RAMS
poem by Louis Rams
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The New Exodus
BY fire and cloud, across the desert sand,
And through the parted waves,
From their long bondage, with an outstretched hand,
God led the Hebrew slaves!
Dead as the letter of the Pentateuch,
As Egypt's statues cold,
In the adytum of the sacred book
Now stands that marvel old.
'Lo, God is great!' the simple Moslem says.
We seek the ancient date,
Turn the dry scroll, and make that living phrase
A dead one: 'God was great!'
And, like the Coptic monks by Mousa's wells,
We dream of wonders past,
Vague as the tales the wandering Arab tells,
Each drowsier than the last.
O fools and blind! Above the Pyramids
Stretches once more that hand,
And trancëd Egypt, from her stony lids,
Flings back her veil of sand.
And morning-smitten Memnon, singing, wakes:
And, listening by his Nile,
O'er Ammon's grave and awful visage breaks
A sweet and human smile.
Not, as before, with hail and fire, and call
Of death for midnight graves,
But in the stillness of the noonday, fall
The fetters of the slaves.
No longer through the Red Sea, as of old,
The bondmen walk dry shod;
Through human hearts, by love of Him controlled,
Runs now that path of God!
poem by John Greenleaf Whittier
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Egypt
Follow the nile
Deep to much deeper.
The pyramids sound lonely tonight.
The sands run red
In lands of the pharoahs.
Their symmetry gets right inside me.
I cannot stop to comfort them.
Im busy chasing up my demon.
I cannot stop to comfort them.
Im busy chasing up my demon.
Oh, Im in love
With egypt.
My pussy queen
Knows all my secrets.
Ill never fall in love again.
I drift with dunes.
I whisper of the tombs.
They offer me egyptian delights.
Shes got me with that feline guise,
Got me in those desert eyes.
Shes got me with that feline guise,
Got me in those desert eyes.
Oh Im in love
With egypt.
song performed by by Kate Bush
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Virtual Visit To Egypt
The land of Moses and Aron,
Country of Joseph, the prettiest one,
Kingdom of Namrod and Phiraon,
Where Abraham with truth won.
The Nile still flows and reminds,
The fall of darkness and injustice,
And Umar's letter inside it finds,
Truth be in speech and in practice.
Mystrious pyramids had to witness,
Many changes but still stand,
The evil one may achieve greatness,
But has to mix shortly in the sand.
Tunisia has shown public's prime,
And taken robbers out from there,
Now Egypt awakes, its her time,
Drowning Mubarak in his sin here.
A flood of people stand against him,
May their efforts bring fruits soon!
Shouting they on the road in their whim,
May they feel cool after this noon!
Would that a Salahuddin be them,
This revolt may not go in vain,
surroundings be filled with Islamic anthem,
And Baitul Muqaddas be free again.
poem by Mohammad Muzzammil
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Hermes Trismegistus
Still through Egypt's desert places
Flows the lordly Nile,
From its banks the great stone faces
Gaze with patient smile.
Still the pyramids imperious
Pierce the cloudless skies,
And the Sphinx stares with mysterious,
Solemn, stony eyes.
But where are the old Egyptian
Demi-gods and kings?
Nothing left but an inscription
Graven on stones and rings.
Where are Helios and Hephaestus,
Gods of eldest eld?
Where is Hermes Trismegistus,
Who their secrets held?
Where are now the many hundred
Thousand books he wrote?
By the Thaumaturgists plundered,
Lost in lands remote;
In oblivion sunk forever,
As when o'er the land
Blows a storm-wind, in the river
Sinks the scattered sand.
Something unsubstantial, ghostly,
Seems this Theurgist,
In deep meditation mostly
Wrapped, as in a mist.
Vague, phantasmal, and unreal
To our thought he seems,
Walking in a world ideal,
In a land of dreams.
Was he one, or many, merging
Name and fame in one,
Like a stream, to which, converging
Many streamlets run?
Till, with gathered power proceeding,
Ampler sweep it takes,
Downward the sweet waters leading
From unnumbered lakes.
By the Nile I see him wandering,
Pausing now and then,
On the mystic union pondering
Between gods and men;
Half believing, wholly feeling,
With supreme delight,
How the gods, themselves concealing,
Lift men to their height.
Or in Thebes, the hundred-gated,
In the thoroughfare
Breathing, as if consecrated,
A diviner air;
And amid discordant noises,
In the jostling throng,
Hearing far, celestial voices
Of Olympian song.
Who shall call his dreams fallacious?
Who has searched or sought
All the unexplored and spacious
Universe of thought?
Who, in his own skill confiding,
Shall with rule and line
Mark the border-land dividing
Human and divine?
Trismegistus! three times greatest!
How thy name sublime
Has descended to this latest
Progeny of time!
Happy they whose written pages
Perish with their lives,
If amid the crumbling ages
Still their name survives!
Thine, O priest of Egypt, lately
Found I in the vast,
Weed-encumbered sombre, stately,
Grave-yard of the Past;
And a presence moved before me
On that gloomy shore,
As a waft of wind, that o'er me
Breathed, and was no more.
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Much More Than a Writing On a Wall
It has been linked to the word 'PEACE'
Since the invention of the word.
That Egypt is embroiled in conflict...
Should disturb everyone with breath to breathe.
The concept of mankind,
Can be found within its tombs.
The pyramids have much more meaning...
Than any scientist can understand.
And Africa where Egypt sits...
Is the Motherland.
Who still is unbelieving of this?
It has been linked to the word 'PEACE'
Since the invention of the word.
That Egypt is embroiled in conflict...
Should disturb everyone with breath to breathe.
Much more is going on in the air,
Than people wishing for tickets to see...
A Super Bowl.
To witness Egypt unravelling...
Should stop conflicts,
Wherever they exist!
This visual message...
Is to deliver much more than a writing on a wall.
There is no need for scholarly interpretations.
Or reminders of credit scores.
These tea leaves do not need to be read.
A greed is going to end...
Where the pyramids began.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Ch 03 On The Excellence Of Contentment Story 02
Two sons of amirs were in Egypt, the one acquiring science, the other accumulating wealth, till the former became the ullemma of the period and the other the prince of Egypt; whereon the rich man looked with contempt upon the faqih and said: ‘I have reached the sultanate whilst thou hast remained in poverty as before.’ He replied: ‘O brother, I am bound to be grateful to the most high Creator for having obtained the inheritance of prophets whilst thou hast attained the inheritance of Pharaoh and of Haman, namely the kingdom of Egypt.’
I am that ant which is trodden under foot
Not that wasp, the pain of whose sting causes lament.
How shall I give due thanks for the blessing
That I do not possess the strength of injuring mankind?
Orion's Belt Pyramids
The River Nile,
the sphinx,
the pyramids,
haunt humanity
with mystic life
giving generations
golden waters,
questions
transforming
mind body
through time,
echo trio stars
Orion's Belt
in star sky
ground images,
as River Nile flows
through Egypt mirrors
Milky Way constellation
in
night
skies.
poem by Terence George Craddock
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A Letter to the River Nile!
It was 20 Hijri during Second Caliph of Islam Omar (RTA)
Egypt was conquered by the Muslims Led by Amor Ibnul us (RTA)
It was intense drought in Egypt Then!
The Nile has become Dry
People raised a conviction
When they throw a beautiful girl with rich clothes and ornaments on 18 day of the month
The Nile begins to flow with water!
Hearing this The Military commander in chief
Disapproved the idea saying it's a Jaheli Culture
And told people to wait and they waited for three months! But still the Nile didn't flow
So people became restless and wanted to leave the State!
In This situation He wrote a letter to the Caliph
In answer Omar wrote 'Dear Amor, What you did that is right now, I'm sending a message (to the Nile) that you would throw in the Nile! '
Amor (RTA) saw the following lines: -
من عمر أَمِير الْمُؤمنِينَ إِلَى نيل مصر أما
بعد فَإِن كنت تجرى من قبلك فَلاَ تجر وَإِن كَانَ الله الْوَاحِد القهار هُوَ الَّذِي يُجْرِيكَ فَنَسْأَلُ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى أَنْ يُجْرِيَك
This message is from an Allah's slave and Amirul Muo-meninn Omar, to the river Nile of Egypt: -
'If you think you Flow yourself, then no need to flow again!
But if the Single entity and the Almighty leads you to flow then, my prayer to Him so that He again makes you to flow! '
Then Amor threw the letter in the Nile!
The next morning people of Egypt saw Allah has made the water flow at the level of 16 yards rise!
From then the water of the Nile still is flowing on
Never has it dried!
poem by Mohammad Jahoorul Islam
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The Idler’s Calendar. Twelve Sonnets For The Months. December
AWAY TO EGYPT
Enough, enough! This winter is too rude,
Too dark of countenance, of tooth too keen.
Nature finds rebels now in flesh and blood,
And hearts grow sick for change and eyes for green.
Let us away! What profits it that men
Are wise as gods, if winter holds its sway,
If blood be chilled, and numbness clasp the brain?
Frost is too stubborn. Let us then away!
Away to Egypt! There we may forget
All but the presence of the blessed sun.
There in our tents well--housed, sublimely set
Under a pyramid, with horse and gun,
We may make terms with Nature and, awhile,
Put as it were our souls to grass, and run
Barefooted and barehearted in the smile
Of that long summer which still girds the Nile.
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
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The Old Pole Star
BEFORE the clepsydra had bound the days
Man tethered Change to his fixed star, and said:
'The elder races, that long since are dead,
Marched by that light; it swerves not from its base
Though all the worlds about it wax and fade.'
When Egypt saw it, fast in reeling spheres,
Her Pyramids shaft-centred on its ray
She reared and said: 'Long as this star holds sway
In uninvaded ether, shall the years
Revere my monuments - ' and went her way.
The Pyramids abide; but through the shaft
That held the polar pivot, eye to eye,
Look now - blank nothingness! As though Change laughed
At man's presumption and his puny craft,
The star has slipped its leash and roams the sky.
Yet could the immemorial piles be swung
A skyey hair's breadth from their rooted base,
Back to the central anchorage of space,
Ah, then again, as when the race was young,
Should they behold the beacon of the race!
Of old men said: 'The Truth is there: we rear
Our faith full-centred on it. It was known
Thus of the elders who foreran us here,
Mapped out its circuit in the shifting sphere,
And found it, 'mid mutation, fixed alone.'
Change laughs again, again the sky is cold,
And down that fissure now no star-beam glides.
Yet they whose sweep of vision grows not old
Still at the central point of space behold
Another pole-star: for the Truth abides.
poem by Edith Wharton
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Monadnock through the Trees
Before there was in Egypt any sound
Of those who reared a more prodigious means
For the self-heavy sleep of kings and queens
Than hitherto had mocked the most renowned,—
Unvisioned here and waiting to be found,
Alone, amid remote and older scenes,
You loomed above ancestral evergreens
Before there were the first of us around.
And when the last of us, if we know how,
See farther from ourselves than we do now,
Assured with other sight than heretofore
That we have done our mortal best and worst,—
Your calm will be the same as when the first
Assyrians went howling south to war.
poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Sonnet: On Greatness
Greatness is not a thing, much like an art;
Some man turns great if on it he stumbles;
His greatness ceases, if he thinks, he's great;
Great is he truly who tho' great, humbles.
Greatness is not true greatness, self-proclaimed;
Greatness is not what world showers on us;
Greatness is neither got by being claimed.
Greatness is not achieved by making fuss.
Greatness could come if world decides to give;
Greatness will stay if God blesses our work;
Such greatness, God-destined comes while men live;
Greatness can grow even without much luck.
Greatness doesn't come to everyone on earth;
Some men are made great; some are great by birth.
poem by John Celes
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The Song of Freedom - A Prayer Reflection on Mee Kamocha
When did we leave Egypt
And when did Egypt leave us?
When were the chains of slavery broken
And when did we finally truly feel free?
Freedom came in steps
It was part of the journey
From Egypt to Canaan
Our people took
And we can still take.
Freedom is courage and hope and clear vision
Freedom is walking to places we can’t see
Freedom in knowing that we can find food in the desert
Freedom is feeling safe though our houses are booths.
Freedom is choosing good rules to live by
And freedom is singing our very own song.
So with Moses and Miriam and all those who went with them
With all those before us who brought us to today
We still sing these words, our first words of freedom
'Freedom is having no sovereign but God.”
10/12/2003
poem by Lewis Eron
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