The Dead Gods

THE DEAD GODS Departed long are all the ancient gods, The elements know not their vanquished race, Their altars broken under dust and clods, In Persia, Egypt, Attica and Thrace! The sacred incense to them no more burns, In vestal temple, or from hero's pyre, Not in their name a votary returns, To Athens, Rome, Thebes, Babylon or Tyre! Lo, by Assyria's scorned and buried fanes, The birds of prey, the Arab bandits, wait; Lo, shapeless mounds upon Chaldea's plains Declare how mean the fallen one's estate! teW ^18 m wasted Nineveh no god remains — The squeaking bats pass through its open gate! ... .-IplL

g&y,-"4X»'^ "~J y>->r? ' I1"" Oi* Around the ruined Paestum graze the sheep; High over Ephesus the eagles soar; In Mycenae, upon Colonna's steep, The paean of the worshiper is o'er. And images lie prostrate mid the stones — Yea, as the mortals, Time the gods destroy! Departed all, and vacant are their thrones, In Carthage, Sardis, Ur, Corinth and Troy! Ah! dim-eyed with its watching is the Spl.inx, Nor sees again the olden mystic rite; The sacred Ibis still of Nilus drinks, But Ra comes not to end Egyptian night — The heathen faith into oblivion sinks, Man ever seeks a wider, clearer light! — Alfred Lambourne