SLEEP, Motley, with the great of ancient days, <br />Who wrote for all the years that yet shall be! <br />Sleep with Herodotus, whose name and praise <br />Have reached the isles of earth’s remotest sea; <br />Sleep, while, defiant of the slow decays <br />Of time, thy glorious writings speak for thee, <br />And in the answering heart of millions raise <br />The generous zeal for Right and Liberty. <br />And should the day o’ertake us when, at last, <br />The silence—that, ere yet a human pen <br />Had traced the slenderest record of the past, <br />Hushed the primeval languages of men— <br />Upon our English tongue its spell shall cast, <br />Thy memory shall perish only then.<br /><br />William Cullen Bryant<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-memory-of-john-lothrop-motley/
