The Seaside and the Fireside/Sand of the Desert in an Hour-glass
Sand of the Desert in an Hour-glass.
A handful of red sand, from the hot clime Of Arab deserts brought,Within this glass becomes the spy of Time, The minister of Thought.
How many weary centuries has it been About those deserts blown!How many strange vicissitudes has seen, How many histories known!
Perhaps the camels of the Ishmaelite Trampled and passed it o'er,When into Egypt from the patriarch's sight His favorite son they bore.
Perhaps the feet of Moses, burnt and bare, Crushed it beneath their tread;Or Pharaoh's flashing wheels into the air Scattered it as they sped;
Or Mary, with the Christ of Nazareth Held close in her caress,Whose pilgrimage of hope and love and faith Illumed the wilderness;
Or anchorites beneath Engaddi's palms Pacing the Red Sea beach,And singing slow their old Armenian psalms In half-articulate speech;
Or caravans, that from Bassora's gate With westward steps depart;Or Mecca's pilgrims, confident of Fate, And resolute in heart!
These have passed over it, or may have passed! Now in this crystal towerImprisoned by some curious hand at last, It counts the passing hour.
And as I gaze, these narrow walls expand;— Before my dreamy eyeStretches the desert with its shifting sand, Its unimpeded sky.
And borne aloft by the sustaining blast, This little golden threadDilates into a column high and vast, A form of fear and dread.
And onward, and across the setting sun, Across the boundless plain,The column and its broader shadow run, Till thought pursues in vain.
The vision vanishes! These walls again Shut out the lurid sun,Shut out the hot, immeasurable plain; The half-hour's sand is run!