Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HERETIC IN THE TEMPLE, by DORA SIGERSON SHORTER Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: Lone did I go within the ancient place Last Line: Across the world, in its death-seeking quest. Alternate Author Name(s): Sigerson, Dora; Shorter, Mrs. Clement Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Egypt; History; Rameses Ii, King Of Egypt; Temples; Historians; Mosques | ||||||||
LONE did I go within the ancient place, With hushéd voice, and slow and reverent tread; While on the walls my wondering eyes in awe Did learn the glories of the mighty dead. The sculptured stones here pictured well the pride Of their great king, his wars, his victories; There, with his club he smites a thousand foes, Here, kneels to Ammon 'neath the sacred trees. There in procession walks, and here doth ride With poiséd spear in fury to the chase; Here, counts the severed hands of Libians dead, There, storms the fortress of a Hittite race. 'Dost sleep, Rameses, in the underworld, Forgot, unhonoured, 'mid the countless dead, Or bowest still in kingly consequence, To ghostly subjects, thy unconquered head? 'These noble walls, white pages of thy past, Where once thy living eyes so often gazed As mine to-day; if Isis so inclines Canst thou still seerejoicing in their praise? 'How counts it for thee in the underworld If thou but sleepest, to this glory blind? If thou dost walk amid the shadowy dead, How holdest all that thou hast left behind?' And while I spoke there came a little voice From where the crown of Rameses did rest Upon the carven brow, and 'Cheep!' it cried, And as I stared a sparrow stood confessed. No eagle here of Jove's Celestial Brood, To comment on the tragedy of thrones, Nor dove of Venus, loosed from her fair breast, To croon its pity by the crumbling stones. Nor from the desert did some lone wolf prowl, To keen upon the mystery of time, Untamed, unchanging, from the slipping sands, He, with his ancient lineage, still sublime. A house-top sparrow this, that dared to speak, With pert indifference on the fate of power, From pale decay of old magnificence, And 'Cheep!' he cried from out his nesting bower. 'Thou hand's-hold of brown feathers, thou dost speak Most wisely now, for in this ancient place Who reads not here man's pomp and pride and fall, The swift oblivion of a splendid race?' 'Rameses, King! dead as thy gods are dead, See, here I kneel, unshadowed by thy might, Nor fear thy guardians of the underworld, A Higher Host has put their shades to flight. 'For me, the promises of earth and sky, The golden heavens, shimmering afar, Death, resurrection, and the angels hold The Gates of Paradise for me ajar.' Then, by the crown of Rameses, the king, The sparrow fed its mate, then came to peep, 'How dost thou hold the Christian promise, then, Thou soulless one?' and 'Cheep!' it answered, 'Cheep!' Then sudden fell the dusk in that swift way It hath in Eastern skies, and shone the stars, And slow the dead moon swung across the skies, And crimson flamed the dying planet Mars. I struck the moaning camel to its pace, Once did he trip upon some mummied thing That from the ground did seem to force its way, Out from the past and Time's enfolding wing. Sharp to my face a grey blown handful came Of the enduring sand that east and west Creeps ever on, so slow, but yet so sure, Across the world, in its death-seeking quest. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BAYADERE by FRANCIS SALTUS SALTUS AT DENDERA by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR RAMESES WORSHIPS RAMESES AT ABU SIMBEL by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR GLIMPSES OF ITALY: 5. LIKE PAESTUM'S TEMPLE by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON MAYAN TEMPLE by ADA CLARKE CARMICHIEL THE EARTHLY HOUSE by PHOEBE CARY THE DESERTED SHRINE by GLADYS CROMWELL THE ARK OF THE COVENANT by NINA DAVIS THE MENORAH by MIRIAM DEL BANCO THE WIND ON THE HILLS by DORA SIGERSON SHORTER |
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