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.

Collection:

English

William Wilberforce

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