Archibald MacLeish,
The Happy Marriage and Other Poems
(1924)
“ Emperors, prophets, priests, named one by one, Great names of prophets who foretold the sun, Names of great emperors whose armies won— These are but names and, being named, are done. But you are never dust, that had no name, Nor any honor in your ages' fame; You that were ageless and all times the same. You raised the stones that lie at Eridu, Petra you built, where once the date-palm grew; And Egypt's pyramids, that cannot say What king they house, nor what his death and day, Nor how he lived, are eloquent of you, Naked and nameless modellers of clay. ”
