Page:Pleasant Memories.pdf/244

    What canst thou tell us? thou whose wondrous date
        Doth more than half our planet's birth-days measure!
    Saw'st thou Sesostris, in his regal state,
        Ruling the conquered nations at his pleasure?
And are those stories true, by History told,
Of hundred-gated Thebes, with all her power and gold?

    Didst hear how hard the yoke of bondage pressed
        On Israel's chosen race, by Nilus' strand?
    And how the awful seer, with words of flame,
        Did in the presence of the tyrant stand,
When with dire plagues the hand of Heaven was red,
And stiff-necked Egypt shrieked o'er all her first-born dead?

    Tell us who built the pyramids; and why
        They took such pains those famous tombs to rear,
    Yet chanced at last to let their names slip by,
        And drown in dark oblivion's waters drear;
Paris, though so polite, can scarce restrain
A smile at such mistake and toil for honors vain.

    Didst e'er attend a trial of the dead?
        Pray, tell us where the judges held their seat;
    And touch us just the key- note of the tune,
        Which statued Memnon breathed, the morn to greet;