To the Obelisk

Mathilde Blind 1841 (Mannheim) – 1896 (London)



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?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
64

Quick analysis:

Scheme A BCCBBACB DEDEED
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 680
Words 118
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 1, 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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