Temples and obelisks her skill proclaim!
Yet though her art and toil unearthly seem,
Those blocks were brought on RAIL-ROADS and by STEAM!
How, when, and why, our people came to rear
The Pyramid of Cheops, mighty pile!
This, and the other secrets thou shalt hear;
I will unfold if thou wilt stay awhile,
The hist’ry of the Sphinx, and who began it,
Onr mystic marks, and monsters made of granite.
Well, then, in grievous times, when King Cephrenes—