--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Lambourne, Alfred collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 16 number: 10 published: 1913-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: Lambourne, Alfred, "The Dead Gods," *Improvement Era* 16, no. 10 (August 1913). source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera16010unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera16010unse rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1913-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera16010unse publication_year: 1913 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1913, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # 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