Heliopolis
Art's infant home, and learning's earliest school,
The world's great college, mystic wisdom's shrine,
Seat of the king-priest's more than regal rule,
Fair city of the sun! and what of thine
Remains to tell how glorious, how divine
Thy temples rose? one solitary stone
Surviving, a memorial and a sign,
Still points to him for whom thy temples shone:
Pause here! it is holy ground whereon we stand--
The Virgin with her Offspring, when she fled
From Herod's fury, laid her weary head
Beneath yon reverend tree--with gentle hand,
Ah! touch these frail traditions--for they shed
A ray round many a spot that else were drear and dread.
Art's infant home, and learning's earliest school,
The world's great college, mystic wisdom's shrine,
Seat of the king-priest's more than regal rule,
Fair city of the sun! and what of thine
Remains to tell how glorious, how divine
Thy temples rose? one solitary stone
Surviving, a memorial and a sign,
Still points to him for whom thy temples shone:
Pause here! it is holy ground whereon we stand--
The Virgin with her Offspring, when she fled
From Herod's fury, laid her weary head
Beneath yon reverend tree--with gentle hand,
Ah! touch these frail traditions--for they shed
A ray round many a spot that else were drear and dread.