Sphinx-Money

Mathilde Blind 1841 (Mannheim) – 1896 (London)



Where Pyramids and temple-wrecks are piled
Confusedly on camel-coloured sands,
And the mute Arab motionlessly stands,
Like some swart god who never wept or smiled,--
I picked up mummy relics of the wild
(And sea-shells once with clutching baby hands),
And felt a wafture from old Motherlands,
And all the morning wonder of a Child

To find Sphinx-money. So the Beduin calls
Small fossils of the waste. Nay, poet's gold;
'Twill give thee entrance to those rites of old,
When hundred-gated Thebes, with storied walls,
Gleamed o'er her Plain, and vast processions rolled
To Amon-Ra through Karnak's pillared halls.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
88

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBA CDDCDC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 618
Words 102
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6

Mathilde Blind

Mathilde Blind, was a German-born British poet. Her work was praised by Matthew Arnold and French politician and historian Louis Blanc. more…

All Mathilde Blind poems | Mathilde Blind Books

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