While greatness grows the garland of a dream;
A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!
Endeavor struggles to an open grave;
The past is lost in monumental dust,
Where age on age in angry ire has thrust
The wise, the strong, the mighty, and the brave;
A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!
The years are shades that totter from their tombs,
The ages, ghosts that live in catacombs
And lure the Present to their awful homes,