I knew they were Accursed

so remote were these nameless desert ruins

Crumbling and inarticulate the debris of

its collapsed walls was

Nearly hidden by the sands of the uncounted ages

It must have been thus before the first stones of

Memphis were laid

And the bricks of Babylon unbaked

Fear spoke from the age worn stones

This desolate survivor of the Deluge

This crumbling antidiluvial ancestor

Of the Eldest Pyramid



Only the grim brooding desert Gods

Knew what really took place here

What indescribable struggles and bloodshed

Awoke some distant throng of condemned spirits

And broke the tomblike silence of these crumbled

Time ravaged remains these night black ruins

Of some vanquished and buried Temple of Belial



But as the Night wind died away

Above the desert rim rose the

Blazing edge of the morning sun

Which in my fevered state

I swore that from some remote depth there came a

Great crash of metal

Like a great Bronze gate

Clanging shut whose reverberations swelled out

To hail the rising Sun as Memnon hails in

From the banks of the Nile