Man, Earth's poor shadow! talks of Earth's decay: <br />But hath it nothing of eternal kin? <br />No majesty that shall not pass away? <br />No soul of greatness springing up within? <br />Thought marks without hoar shadows of sublime, <br />Pictures of power, which if not doomed to win <br />Eternity, stand laughing at old Time <br />For ages: in the grand ancestral line <br />Of things eternal, mounting to divine, <br />I read Magnificence where ages pay <br />Worship like conquered foes to the Apennine, <br />Because they could not conquer. There sits Day <br />Too high for Night to come at--mountains shine, <br />Outpeering Time, too lofty for decay.<br /><br />John Clare<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/earth-s-eternity/
