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 Rh Rh N the shade of the pyramids I knelt and wrote on the sand, While with softly drooping, veiléd 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.