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The Innovator

Topics: classic

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!

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"A Pharaoh Speaks...."

Stephen Vincent Benet's contribution to classic is further solidified by the brilliance found in "The Innovator"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

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