Sir Flinders Petrie, Egyptologist

An Archic Sonnet

To know what man was, ere he wrote his name,
Inscribed the laws and precepts on the rock,
And sacrificed the best lamb of the flock,
We dig the mound, and wander o’er the plain.
To learn the mysteries of the past, we fain
Would search for hidden slabs, and keep in stock
The Relics we so love. Oh, to unlock
The door, and gain an entrance to the same!
The glimpse we sometimes get near makes us wroth
To know the light shines dimly on the scene,
And different eyes through different glasses look.
We glance again, and yet are ever loth
To turn away; and think perchance a gleam
Of light will come from out some unseen nook.

by Z. X. Corey, The Archaeologist, Vol. 3 (1894), p. 14.