Classic Poem

She came in the diademed guise
Of Egypt's bewildering queen;
Apparel of aureate dyes
Lent orient pomp to her mien;
The stars in the heavens of her eyes
Cast magian glamor and sheen.

The smile of astonishment told
How plainly our homage was shown;
The Phidian face glimmered cold,
The face of a goddess in stone;
More regal with beauty than gold,
She needed no sceptre nor throne.

One moment I lived in the past,
Beside her pavilion I bowed,
Or ran to the templed Nile fast
To cheer where her galleon ploughed,
And prayed for the vision to last,
On my knees in a worshipping crowd.

And, maddened, I shouted that well
Might Roman with African strive
And stumble ensanguined to hell,
Yet cease not to grapple and rive
For a queen whose face was a spell,
For the fairest of women alive.