{
 "id": "oscar-wilde/the-sphinx",
 "title": "The Sphinx",
 "poet": "Oscar Wilde",
 "poet_slug": "oscar-wilde",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Sphinx",
 "book_slug": "the-sphinx",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 1,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1894,
  "venue": "The Sphinx (1894)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1057"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1338",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lotus_Leaves",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wasted_Days_(from_a_Picture_Painted_by_Miss_V._T.)",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102953450",
   "https://archive.org/details/ravennarecitedin00wildrich",
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   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006061074",
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   "https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=pilot18770721-01.2.24"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 174,
  "n_stanzas": 87,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 85,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "In a dim corner of my room for longer than my fancy thinks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A beautiful and silent Sphinx has watched me through the shifting gloom.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Inviolate and immobile she does not rise she does not stir",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For silver moons are naught to her and naught to her the suns that reel.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Red follows grey across the air, the waves of moonlight ebb and flow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But with the Dawn she does not go and in the night-time she is there.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dawn follows Dawn and Nights grow old and all the while this curious cat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lies couching on the Chinese mat with eyes of satin rimmed with gold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Upon the mat she lies and leers and on the tawny throat of her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flutters the soft and silky fur or ripples to her pointed ears.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come forth, my lovely seneschal! so somnolent, so statuesque!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come forth you exquisite grotesque! half woman and half animal!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come forth my lovely languorous Sphinx! and put your head upon my knee!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And let me stroke your throat and see your body spotted like the Lynx!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And let me touch those curving claws of yellow ivory and grasp",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The tail that like a monstrous Asp coils round your heavy velvet paws!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A thousand weary centuries are thine while I have hardly seen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some twenty summers cast their green for Autumn’s gaudy liveries.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But you can read the Hieroglyphs on the great sandstone obelisks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And you have talked with Basilisks, and you have looked on Hippogriffs.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O tell me, were you standing by when Isis to Osiris knelt?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And did you watch the Egyptian melt her union for Antony",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And drink the jewel-drunken wine and bend her head in mimic awe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see the huge proconsul draw the salted tunny from the brine?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And did you mark the Cyprian kiss white Adon on his catafalque?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And did you follow Amenalk, the God of Heliopolis?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And did you talk with Thoth, and did you hear the moon-horned Io weep?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And know the painted kings who sleep beneath the wedge-shaped Pyramid?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lift up your large black satin eyes which are like cushions where one sinks!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fawn at my feet, fantastic Sphinx! and sing me all your memories!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing to me of the Jewish maid who wandered with the Holy Child,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And how you led them through the wild, and how they slept beneath your shade.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing to me of that odorous green eve when crouching by the marge",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You heard from Adrian’s gilded barge the laughter of Antinous",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And lapped the stream and fed your drouth and watched with hot and hungry stare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ivory body of that rare young slave with his pomegranate mouth!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing to me of the Labyrinth in which the twi-formed bull was stalled!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sing to me of the night you crawled across the temple’s granite plinth",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When through the purple corridors the screaming scarlet Ibis flew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In terror, and a horrid dew dripped from the moaning Mandragores,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And the great torpid crocodile within the tank shed slimy tears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And tare the jewels from his ears and staggered back into the Nile,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And the priests cursed you with shrill psalms as in your claws you seized their snake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And crept away with it to slake your passion by the shuddering palms.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Who were your lovers? who were they who wrestled for you in the dust?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which was the vessel of your Lust? What Leman had you, every day?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Did giant Lizards come and crouch before you on the reedy banks?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did Gryphons with great metal flanks leap on you in your trampled couch?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Did monstrous hippopotami come sidling toward you in the mist?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did gilt-scaled dragons writhe and twist with passion as you passed them by?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And from the brick-built Lycian tomb what horrible Chimera came",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With fearful heads and fearful flame to breed new wonders from your womb?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or had you shameful secret quests and did you harry to your home",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some Nereid coiled in amber foam with curious rock crystal breasts?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or did you treading through the froth call to the brown Sidonian",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For tidings of Leviathan, Leviathan or Behemoth?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or did you when the sun was set climb up the cactus-covered slope",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To meet your swarthy Ethiop whose body was of polished jet?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or did you while the earthen skiffs dropped down the grey Nilotic flats",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At twilight and the flickering bats flew round the temple’s triple glyphs",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Steal to the border of the bar and swim across the silent lake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And slink into the vault and make the Pyramid your lúpanar",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Till from each black sarcophagus rose up the painted swathèd dead?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or did you lure unto your bed the ivory-horned Tragelaphos?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or did you love the god of flies who plagued the Hebrews and was splashed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With wine unto the waist? or Pasht, who had green beryls for her eyes?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or that young god, the Tyrian, who was more amorous than the dove",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Ashtaroth? or did you love the god of the Assyrian",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Whose wings, like strange transparent talc, rose high above his hawk-faced head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Painted with silver and with red and ribbed with rods of Oreichalch?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or did huge Apis from his car leap down and lay before your feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Big blossoms of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured nenuphar?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How subtle-secret is your smile! Did you love none then? Nay, I know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Great Ammon was your bedfellow! He lay with you beside the Nile!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The river-horses in the slime trumpeted when they saw him come",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Odorous with Syrian galbanum and smeared with spikenard and with thyme.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He came along the river bank like some tall galley argent-sailed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He strode across the waters, mailed in beauty, and the waters sank.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He strode across the desert sand: he reached the valley where you lay:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He waited till the dawn of day: then touched your black breasts with his hand.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You kissed his mouth with mouths of flame: you made the hornèd god your own:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You stood behind him on his throne: you called him by his secret name.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You whispered monstrous oracles into the caverns of his ears:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With blood of goats and blood of steers you taught him monstrous miracles.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "White Ammon was your bedfellow! Your chamber was the steaming Nile!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with your curved archaic smile you watched his passion come and go.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With Syrian oils his brows were bright: and wide-spread as a tent at noon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His marble limbs made pale the moon and lent the day a larger light.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His long hair was nine cubits’ span and coloured like that yellow gem",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which hidden in their garment’s hem the merchants bring from Kurdistan.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His face was as the must that lies upon a vat of new-made wine:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The seas could not insapphirine the perfect azure of his eyes.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His thick soft throat was white as milk and threaded with thin veins of blue:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And curious pearls like frozen dew were broidered on his flowing silk.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "On pearl and porphyry pedestalled he was too bright to look upon:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For on his ivory breast there shone the wondrous ocean-emerald,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That mystic moonlit jewel which some diver of the Colchian caves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had found beneath the blackening waves and carried to the Colchian witch.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Before his gilded galiot ran naked vine-wreathed corybants,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lines of swaying elephants knelt down to draw his chariot,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And lines of swarthy Nubians bare up his litter as he rode",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down the great granite-paven road between the nodding peacock-fans.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The merchants brought him steatite from Sidon in their painted ships:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The meanest cup that touched his lips was fashioned from a chrysolite.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The merchants brought him cedar chests of rich apparel bound with cords:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His train was borne by Memphian lords: young kings were glad to be his guests.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ten hundred shaven priests did bow to Ammon’s altar day and night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ten hundred lamps did wave their light through Ammon’s carven house⁠—and now",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Foul snake and speckled adder with their young ones crawl from stone to stone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For ruined is the house and prone the great rose-marble monolith!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Wild ass or trotting jackal comes and couches in the mouldering gates:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wild satyrs call unto their mates across the fallen fluted drums.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And on the summit of the pile the blue-faced ape of Horus sits",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gibbers while the fig-tree splits the pillars of the peristyle.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The god is scattered here and there: deep hidden in the windy sand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw his giant granite hand still clenched in impotent despair.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And many a wandering caravan of stately Negroes silken-shawled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crossing the desert, halts appalled before the neck that none can span.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And many a bearded Bedouin draws back his yellow-striped burnous",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To gaze upon the Titan thews of him who was thy paladin.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Go, seek his fragments on the moor and wash them in the evening dew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from their pieces make anew thy mutilated paramour!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Go, seek them where they lie alone and from their broken pieces make",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy bruisèd bedfellow! And wake mad passions in the senseless stone!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Charm his dull ear with Syrian hymns! he loved your body! oh, be kind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pour spikenard on his hair, and wind soft rolls of linen round his limbs!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Wind round his head the figured coins! stain with red fruits those pallid lips!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weave purple for his shrunken hips! and purple for his barren loins!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Away to Egypt! Have no fear. Only one God has ever died.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only one God has let His side be wounded by a soldier’s spear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But these, thy lovers, are not dead. Still by the hundred-cubit gate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dog-faced Anubis sits in state with lotus-lilies for thy head.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Still from his chair of porphyry gaunt Memnon strains his lidless eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across the empty land, and cries each yellow morning unto thee.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Nilus with his broken horn lies in his black and oozy bed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And till thy coming will not spread his waters on the withering corn.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Your lovers are not dead, I know. They will rise up and hear your voice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And clash their cymbals and rejoice and run to kiss your mouth! And so,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Set wings upon your argosies! Set horses to your ebon car!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Back to your Nile! Or if you are grown sick of dead divinities",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Follow some roving lion’s spoor across the copper-coloured plain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reach out and hale him by the mane and bid him be your paramour!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Couch by his side upon the grass and set your white teeth in his throat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when you hear his dying note lash your long flanks of polished brass",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And take a tiger for your mate, whose amber sides are flecked with black,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ride upon his gilded back in triumph through the Theban gate,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And toy with him in amorous jests, and when he turns, and snarls, and gnaws,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O smite him with your jasper claws! and bruise him with your agate breasts!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Why are you tarrying? Get hence! I weary of your sullen ways,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I weary of your steadfast gaze, your somnolent magnificence.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Your horrible and heavy breath makes the light flicker in the lamp,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on my brow I feel the damp and dreadful dews of night and death.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Your eyes are like fantastic moons that shiver in some stagnant lake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your tongue is like a scarlet snake that dances to fantastic tunes,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Your pulse makes poisonous melodies, and your black throat is like the hole",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Left by some torch or burning coal on Saracenic tapestries.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Away! The sulphur-coloured stars are hurrying through the Western gate!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Away! Or it may be too late to climb their silent silver cars!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "See, the dawn shivers round the grey gilt-dialled towers, and the rain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Streams down each diamonded pane and blurs with tears the wannish day.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What snake-tressed fury fresh from Hell, with uncouth gestures and unclean,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stole from the poppy-drowsy queen and led you to a student’s cell?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What songless tongueless ghost of sin crept through the curtains of the night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And saw my taper burning bright, and knocked, and bade you enter in?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Are there not others more accursed, whiter with leprosies than I?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are Abana and Pharphar dry that you come here to slake your thirst?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Get hence, you loathsome mystery! Hideous animal, get hence!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You wake in me each bestial sense, you make me what I would not be.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You make my creed a barren sham, you wake foul dreams of sensual life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Atys with his blood-stained knife were better than the thing I am.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "False Sphinx! False Sphinx! By reedy Styx old Charon, leaning on his oar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waits for my coin. Go thou before, and leave me to my crucifix,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Whose pallid burden, sick with pain, watches the world with wearied eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And weeps for every soul that dies, and weeps for every soul in vain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}