It flows through old hushed Egypt and its sands,
 Like some grave mighty thought threading a dream,
 And times and things, as in that vision, seem
Keeping along it their eternal stands,--
Caves, pillars, pyramids, the shepherd bands
 That roamed through the young world, the glory extreme
 Of high Sesostris, and that southern beam,
The laughing queen that caught the world's great hands.

Then comes a mightier silence, stern and strong,
As of a world left empty of its throng,
 And the void weighs on us; and then we wake,
And hear the fruitful stream lapsing along
 Twixt villages, and think how we shall take
 Our own calm journey on for human sake.