Here is a song that sums up Sara Teasdale's "cheery" outlook on life. She lived in the 
period of the height great British colonial world. When she was a child it was very 
possible that she saw first hand the glorious treasures that British Egyptologists had 
plundered from the pyramids. But true to her cheery outlook, she saw the dead body instead 
of the glittery gold.

I tried to write something that sounded Egyptian. Instead it sounds more like Greek 
Balalikas. Oh well, it's still Mediteranian.

EGYPTIAN KINGS WERE BURIED
Words by Sara Teasdale, music by James E. Nelson

Egyptian kings were buried
With all their golden gear,
Cup and chest and chariot,
Couch and battle-spear.

Centuries of solid night
Pass them as an hour goes by:
When the chamber is unsealed
The gold looks gayly at the sky,

But the kingly body lies
Like a bit of blackened leather,
All the wrappings round the king
Cannot hold his bones together.

All the unguents and the spice,
All the power of pride or tears
Cannot keep the human body
past its few small years.