Classic Poem

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.