Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By William WilberforceLord

405 On the Defeat of a Great Man

FALLEN? How fallen? States and empires fall;

O’er towers and rock-built walls,

And perished nations, floods to tempests call

With hollow sound along the sea of time:

The great man never falls.

He lives, he towers aloft, he stands sublime:

They fall who give him not

The honor here that suits his future name,—

They die and are forgot.

O Giant loud and blind! the great man’s fame

Is his own shadow, and not cast by thee,—

A shadow that shall grow

As down the heaven of time the sun descends,

And on the world shall throw

His god-like image, till it sinks where blends

Time’s dim horizon with Eternity.