Explore "The Innovator" by Stephen Vincent Benet on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(A Pharaoh Speaks.)
I said, "Why should a pyramid / Stand always dully on its base?
I'll change it! Let the top be hid, / The bottom take the apex-place!"
And as I bade they did.
The people flocked in, scores on scores, / To see it balance on its tip.
They praised me with the praise that bores, / My godlike mind on every lip.
-- Until it fell, of course.
And then they took my body out / From my crushed palace, mad with rage, / -- Well, half the town WAS wrecked, no doubt -- / Their crazy anger to assuage / By dragging it about.
The end? Foul birds defile my skull.
The new king's praises fill the land.
He clings to precept, simple, dull; / HIS pyramids on bases stand.
But -- Lord, how usual!