River!River!River!(Ancient Egyptain Poem 2nd edition)

        When I hear people mention about ancient Egyptians, the pyramids, mummies, pharaohs, and their hieroglyphic words in the tombs are the primary things that popping into my mind.  However, after I read some of the ancient Egyptian poems, I have a better understanding about the Egyptians’ perspectives towards to their religion, belief, and maybe their romanticism. 

        I like the poem called “Akhenaten’s ‘Hymn to the Sun’” simply because this poem is not only describes how important the sun or sun god to the ancient people, but also mentions about essential factors of the Neil River to them.  While the sun shines its brightness, heat and lively rays upon the land which in order to protect people from cold, darkness, fear, and even death, the Neil River preserves and nourishes people with its streams.  When I read this poem, it recalls my memories about many poems and ancient articles that I have studied in China that are about rivers.  In my opinion, I think that we should have appreciated the rivers more than we did to the sun.  Indeed, without the sun and its light and heat, nothing would appear on earth; however, when the sun did rotate and provide day and night to every place on earth, it was the rivers who nurtured the old civilization to be formed.  In China, there was Yellow River, and we call it our Mother River thousands years long; in mid-east Asia, there was a prosperous and fascinating region known as the Mesopotamia, and it was form by two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates River; in India, the Indus River was their civilization’s seedbed.  Back to thousands years earlier, the river can provide food(fishes), drinking water, agriculture and protection to the ancient people, and they are all the very essence of life, and it was almost impossible to life in the region far from the river.  Well, after all, every region as its own tradition.  Ancient Egyptians thought that it was the sun (sun god) who should take 90% of the credits because they believed that their sun god was the creator of everything.

        When I actually look into this poem, I feel that it was a very outstanding work and I really like it.  The poem “Akhenaten’s ‘Hymn to the Sun’” contains many poetic elements such as metaphor, simile, and symbolism.  Metaphor for example, in the first section of the poem, it describes the sun (they think that actually is the God) rises by using many words such as “majestic,” “awesome,” “bedazzling,” “exalted” and “overlord” to emphasize the overwhelming power the sun(God) has.  Moreover, it also uses simile and symbolism to show people’s fear about the darkness, which after the sun (God) goes away during the night.  For example, in the second section, it describes “darkness like death (use of simile),” and “he who created all things lies low in his tomb” symbolize that without the sunlight, the land is very much like a tomb.  Later in the poem, when it mentions about the flood god Hapy, there is no words to blame Hapy or Akhenaten.  Instead, they think that it is “to preserve and nourish the People.”  I assume they realized that how important the river is to them, or maybe they this it was just their ultimate God’s plan after all.