|
|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE WINDS OF LUXOR, by ROBERT CLAY
First Line: The winds of luxor fiercely blow,
Last Line: Into the dust of lost renown!
Subject(s): Egypt; Luxor, Egypt
First Line: The winds of luxor fiercely blow,
Last Line: Into the dust of lost renown!
Subject(s): Egypt; Luxor, Egypt
The winds of Luxor fiercely blow
Against my cheeks the dust of kings,
Egyptians of the long ago,
Pharaohs, and serfs, the overflow
And undertow of centuries --
Dust, dust, dust.
The dust of crowns and dust of wings
Blown from the Valley of the Kings.
The columns wise with hieroglyphs --
The hypostyle, the pillared state;
Dromos of sphinxes; monoliths;
Kings, and divinities, and myths;
Rameses, and Tut-Ankh-Amen . . .
Dust, dust, dust . . .
Thothmes, and Seti . . . Shishak . . . all
Less than a crumbling ruined wall!
Temples, and obelisks, and gems;
Pylons, and bones, and Libyan sands;
Sculptures and precious diadems;
Great courts, and chariots, and stems
Of rose and lotus strew the years . . .
Dust, dust, dust.
The winds of Luxor stifle me . . .
I faint, I fall, I cease to be.
Across the moonlight of our lawn
Resound the Luxor winds, and now
The mountain ash trees, red with dawn,
Lisping with waxwings, both are gone,
And hills in desert storms arise --
Dust, dust, dust.
The winds of Luxor bear me down
Into the dust of lost renown!
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
THE NEGRO'S TRAGEDY by CLAUDE MCKAY
KING DAVID by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET
THANATOPSIS by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
ON A MAGAZINE SONNET by RUSSELL HILLARD LOINES
OLD MOTHERS by CHARLES SARSFIELD ROSS
A SHADOW OF THE NIGHT by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
FUNERAL by ETHEL SKIPTON BARRINGER