Vision of Khem, I

Mid-day. The air burns; beneath the blazing sky
The languid river rolls in leaden flight;
The blinding zenith darts its arrowy light,
And on all Egypt glares Phra's pitiless eye.

The sphinxes with undrooping eyelids lie
Lapped in the scorching sand, with tranquil sight,
Mysterious, changeless, fixed upon the white
Needles of stone upreared so proudly high.

Nought stains or specks the heaven serene and clear
Save the far vultures in unending sweep;
The boundless flame lulls man and beast to sleep;

The parched soil crackles, and Anubis here,
Amid these joys of heat immobile one,
With brazen throat in silence bays the sun.