Classic Poem

Men fashioned you, when by the slumberous Nile
Rose stately temples, rich with carven stone,
Through whose cool, lofty spaces rolled, wind-blown,
Fierce triumph songs that loudly swelled the while
Vast hosts went marching by, mile after mile
Of gleaming spears and swords that brightly zone
A conquering king, whose sounding name was known
As master in each grand and massive pile.
The temples now are crumbling into dust,
The mighty men of war are long forgot,
And even the king would be unknown to fame,
Had not you held his deeds in sacred trust,
And brought to us, unstained by cruel blot,
The resonance and glory of his name.