Moses: a Story of the Nile

Men grow strong in action, but in solitude / Their thoughts are ripened. Like one who cuts away / The bridge on which he has walked in safety / To the other side, so Moses cut off all retreat / To Pharaoh's throne, and did choose the calling / Most hateful to an Egyptian; he became / A shepherd, and led his flocks and herds amid / The solitudes and wilds of Midian, where he / Nursed in silent loneliness his earnest faith / In God and a constant love for kindred, tribe / And race. Years stole o'er him, but they took / No atom from his strength, nor laid one heavy weight / Upon his shoulders. The down upon his face / Had ripened to a heavy beard; the fire / That glowed within his youthful eye had deepened / To a calm and steady light, and yet his heart / Was just as faithful to his race as when he had / Stood in Pharaoh's courts and bade farewell / Unto his daughter.

There was a look of patient waiting on his face, / A calm, grand patience, like one who had lifted / Up his eyes to God and seen, with meekened face, / The wings of some great destiny o'ershadowing / All his life with strange and solemn glory.