Explore "The Sphinx" by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
O glad girls' faces, hushed and fair! how shall I sing for ye? / For the grave picture of a sphinx is all that I can see.
Vain is the driving of the sand, and vain the desert's art; / The years strive with her, but she holds the lion in her heart.
Baffled or fostered, patient still, the perfect purpose clings; / Flying or folded, strong as stone, she wears the eagle's wings.
Eastward she looks; against the sky the eternal morning lies; / Silent or pleading, veiled or free, she lifts the woman's eyes.
O grave girls' faces, listening kind! glad will I sing for ye, / While the proud figure of the sphinx is all that I can see.
[1] Written for a graduating class at Abbott Academy.