Edmund W. Gosse - On a Lute Found in a Sarcophagus lyrics

What curled and scented sun-girls, almond-eyed, With lotus blossoms in their hands and hair, Have made their swarthy lovers call them fair, With these spent strings, when brutes were deified, And Memnon in the sunrise sprang and cried, And love-winds smote Bubastis, and the bare Black breasts of carven Pasht received the prayer Of suppliants bearing gifts from far and wide! This lute has outsung Egypt; all the lives Of violent pa**ion, and the vast calm art That lasts in granite only, all lie dead; This little bird of song alone survives, As fresh as when its fluting smote the heart Last time the brown slave wore it garlanded.