Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WRITER, by JOHN COWPER POWYS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WRITER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the shade of the pyramids
Last Line: Fled away like a flame.
Subject(s): Mythology; Pyramids; Troy; Writing & Writers


In the shade of the pyramids
I knelt and wrote on the sand,
While with softly drooping, veiled lids,
You watched in the shade of those pyramids
The movements of my hand.

I wrote of the fall of Troy,
I wrote of the Grecian ships,
I wrote of Adonis the lovely boy,
And of winged Psyche's virgin joy
As she clung to Eros' lips.

I wrote of the Syrian pearls,
Of Herod, the Jewish king.
I wrote of Salome's tossing curls
And the pale lips sweeter than any girl's,
Of her blood-stained offering.

But all the while you kept,
Dark-lowered your veiled lids.
You neither laughed nor murmured nor wept;
A watcher would surely have dreamed you slept
In the shade of those pyramids.

But when I wrote in the sand
A little unlegended name,
A human unhistoried name,
With a bitter cry and uplifted hand
You rose and over that famished land,
Fled away like a flame.





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