And all around is desolate and chill.
Empires have had their autumns, and are lost
Beneath the dead and rustling leaves of time.
Egypt, majestic in her ruin, sleeps
Upon the Nile—the pyramids her history
And her tomb. Idumea, ’mid her cliffs,
Yawns in her gloom, an empty sepulchre.
Tadmor is hid amid the desert sand;
Balbec’s tremendous wall upon the waste,
Shelters the spotted lizard and the owl;