The Nile by Leigh Hunt
Leigh Hunt read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\n\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\n\n---------------------------------------------------\n\nThe Nile\n\nby James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784 \u2013 1859)\n\nIt flows through old hushed Egypt and its sands,\nLike some grave mighty thought threading a dream,\nAnd times and things, as in that vision, seem\nKeeping along it their eternal stands,--\nCaves, pillars, pyramids, the shepherd bands\nThat roamed through the young world, the glory extreme\nOf high Sesostris, and that southern beam,\nThe laughing queen that caught the world's great hands.\n\nThen comes a mightier silence, stern and strong,\nAs of a world left empty of its throng,\nAnd the void weighs on us; and then we wake,\nAnd hear the fruitful stream lapsing along\nTwixt villages, and think how we shall take\nOur own calm journey on for human sake.