Page:The poetical works of James Thomson (1895), Volume 2.djvu/13

 A VOICE FROM THE NILE

from mountains under other stars

Than those reflected in my waters here ;

Athwart broad realms, beneath large skies, I flow,

Between the Libyan and Arabian hills,

And merge at last into the great Mid-Sea ;

And make this land of Egypt. All is mine :

The palm-trees and the doves among the palms,

The corn-fields and the flowers among the corn,

The patient oxen and the crocodiles,

The ibis and the heron and the hawk,

The lotus and the thick papyrus reeds,

The slant-sailed boats that flit before the wind

Or up my rapids ropes hale heavily ;

Yea, even all the massive temple-fronts

With all their columns and huge effigies,

The pyramids and Memnon and the Sphinx,

This Cairo and the City of the Greek

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