VIII: Fame--The Symbol And Proof Of Immortality

The names that slow oblivion have defied,
And passionate ambition's wildest shocks
Stand in lone grandeur, like eternal rocks,
To cast broad shadows o'er the silent tide
Of time's unebbing flood, whose waters glide,
To ponderous darkness from their secret spring,
And, bearing on each transitory thing,
Leave those old monuments in loneliest pride.
There stand they--fortresses uprear'd by man,
Whose earthly frame is mortal; symbols high
Of power unchanging,--thought that cannot die:
Proofs that our nature mocks its earthly span,
And claims an essence by its God allied
To life and joy and love unperishing.