It is a long journey from the decaying fragments of stone and papyrus upon which ancient Egyptian literature is written to finished translations of that civilization's classics. In this book, translator John L. Foster shows how these bits and pieces, hints of old poems written three and four thousand years ago, come alive again to illuminate their time, revealing a spirit that is relevant today. The written compositions of ancient Egypt are among humanity's first - predating the ancient Greek and Hebrew texts by as much as two millenia. Almost all Egyptian literary texts are in verse, frequently in couplet form and include an assortment of poetic elements, such as figurative language, imagery, nuances in vocabulary and sound repitition.