Majestic Sphinx! Thou crouchest by a sea Whose fawn-hued wavelets clasp thy buried feet;

Whose desert surface, petrified like thee, Gleams white with sails of many an Arab fleet; Or when wild storms its waves to fury sweep, High o'er thy form the tawny billows leap: Majestic Sphinx!

Eternal Sphinx! The pyramids are thine; Their giant summits guard thee night and day;

On thee they look when stars in splendor shine, Or while around their crests the sunbeams play; Thine own coevals, who with thee remain Colossal genii of the boundless plain: Eternal Sphinx!