MONROE, Harriet


The Assouan Dam

There is a lake at Philae

Where once a temple rose.

Steel walls confront the river,

The great gates open and close;

And through parched wastes the wilful Nile

Obediently flows.

There is a lake at Philae

And starving mouths are fed.

The old gods of the desert

Sleep in the river’s bed.

So still in wave-locked halls they lie —

It may be they are dead.