| Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918. |
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| 178. Memnon |
| | | By Leslie Holdsworth Allen |
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| WHEN I was a burst of thunder | |
| Born on the Nubian cliffs, | |
| And the sands flashed white in wonder, | |
| And in Khem the curious glyphs | |
| Shone out from the cavern-tombs | 5 |
| On the huddled bats in the glooms, | |
| ’Mid the great stone kings I rumbled | |
| That sit by the river-brinks, | |
| And my sand-clouds eddied and tumbled | |
| Round the old stare of the Sphinx; | 10 |
| Then with harsh-throated cries | |
| I burst on Memnon’s eyes. | |
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| The force of me made no quiver | |
| In that earth-ancient gaze; | |
| I felt my raging shiver | 15 |
| And shrink to desert-haze, | |
| And heard in the dawning gold | |
| The stillness of music old. | |
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