Sphinx, down whose rugged face
The sliding centuries their furrows cleave
By sun and frost and cloud-burst; scarce to leave
Perceptible a trace
Of age or sorrow;
Faint hints of yesterdays with no to-morrow;–
My mind regards thee with a questioning eye,
To know thy secret, high.
If Theban mystery,
With head of woman, soaring, bird-like wings
And serpent’s tail on lion’s trunk, were things
Puzzling in history;
And men invented
For it an origin which represented
Chimera and a monster double-headed,
By myths Phenician wedded–
Their issue being this–
This most chimerical and wonderous thing
From whose dumb mouth not even the gods could wring
Truth, nor antithesis:
Then, what I think is,
This creature–being chief among men’s sphinxes–
Is eloquent, and overflows with story,
Beside thy silence hoary!
Nevada!–desert waste!
Mighty, and inhospitable, and stern;
Hiding a meaning over which we yearn
In eager, panting haste–
Grasping and losing,
Still being deluded ever by our choosing–
Answer us Sphinx: What is thy meaning double
But endless toil and trouble?
Inscrutable, men strive
To rend thy secret from thy rocky breast;
Breaking their hearts, and periling heaven’s rest
For hopes that cannot thrive;
Whilst unrelenting,
Upon thy mountain throne, and unrepenting,
Thou sittest, basking in a fervid sun,
Seeing or hearing none.
I sit beneath thy stars,
The shallop moon beached on a bank of clouds–;
And see thy mountains wrapped in shadowed shrouds,
Glad that the darkness bars
The day’s suggestion–
The endless repetition of one question;
Glad that thy stony face I cannot see,
Nevada–Mystery!
(Frances Fuller Victor)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, God Poems, Sadness Poems, Woman Poems, Truth Poems, Age Poems, Secrets Poems, Mystery Poems, History Poems, Lions Poems, Questioning PoemsBased on Keywords: sittest, nevada, beached, wonderous, represented, suggestion, inhospitable, repetition, puzzling, bird-like, perceptible