IMMORTAL FOES
Reading edition
At Bedrashein between the pyramids I saw the wingèd sun fold up his pinions And sink into the nether world's dominions Where Set sent ill on the Egyptian dead. I saw the ancient Desert, that outbids The Nile for the date-lands between them spread, Fling over Memphis that is vanishèd, Another shroud of sand, then bid his minions, The winds, lie down upon their boundless bed. I saw where temples vowed to Serapis And granite splendours men name Pharaonic Are kept by Time in silence and sardonic Concealment—mummied in deep mystic tombs. And when the stars came out in quiet bliss, I heard Eternity with all its dooms, Past and to come, sound softly the mnemonic Of Death who waits all worlds that Life enwombs.