To the Nile + 

Son of the old moon-mountains African! + 

Chief of the Pyramid and Crocodile! + 

We call thee fruitful, and that very while + 

A desert fills our seeing’s inward span; + 

Nurse of swart nations since the world began, + 

Art thou so fruitful? or dost thou beguile + 

Such men to honour thee, who, worn with toil, + 

Rest for a space ’twixt Cairo and Decan? + 

O may dark fancies err! They surely do; + 

’Tis ignorance that makes a barren waste + 

Of all beyond itself. Thou dost bedew + 

Green rushes like our rivers, and dost taste + 

The pleasant sun-rise. Green isles hast thou too, + 

And to the sea as happily dost haste. + 