158
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Title
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158
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Transcription
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ACADEME
What cities men have dreamed!
And builded of hewn stone on plain and hill
Till man's historic script is starred and seamed
With images of grandeur that do fill
Dim generations with reverberant awe
Of kings and peoples and their cities law!
Great Karnak which Tehutmes raised
Of granite of Syene and red porphyry
And Nubian gold—and o'er it blazed
Tehutmes' name, the Conqueror!
Babel of the East—rich Babel that did lie
By the rivers of Paradise, Lord of peace and war...
In her Orient mart
The fairskinned northman met the swart
And jewelled daughter of the south—
Ah, honey was her mouth,
And honeyed song was all her breath!
And honeyed was the tomb
Wherein the siren city laid her sons at death...
Karnak and Babel, and she who gave their doom
To earth's wide nations—Rome, the eternal!
Who should withstay her all-imperious march...
Today, the broken pillar and the ruined arch
Proclaim her vanished sway.
But we shall build more lastingly than they!
For we shall seat in templed majesty,
Fronting with gate serene the dawning day,
What city deep-eyed Plato saw
In visionry supernal—
Justice her corner and all her law
That wisdom which must be
The guide and crown of mortal destiny.
H.B.A.
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Rights
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To inquire about usage, please contact Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. These images are for educational use only. Not all images are available for publication.
