AN EGYPTIAN BANQUET 369 
AN EGYPTIAN BANQUET 
A CROWDED life, where joy perennial starts ; 
The boy’s pulse beating ’mid experience 
Sage ; 
Wild thirst for action, time could ne’er as- 
suage ; 
Countless sad secrets, learned from weary 
hearts ; 
New thresholds gained, as each full hour de- 
parts ; 
Long years read singly, each an opened 
page ; 
Love’s blissful dreams and friendship’s price- 
less gage ; 
A name grown famous through the streets 
and marts; 
Knowledge advancing; thoughts that climb 
and climb ; 
Aims that expand; new pinions that unfurl; 
Age that outstrips all promise of its prime; 
Hopes which their prayers at utmost heaven 
hurl, — 
Till in an instant, in a point of time, 
Death, the Egyptian, melts and drinks the 
pearl. 
