William Cullen Bryant,
Poems — Thanatopsis
(1821)
“ The globe are but a handful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom.—Take the wings Of morning—and the Barcan desert pierce, Or lose thyself in the continuous woods Where rolls the Oregan, and hears no sound, Save his own dashings—yet—the dead are there, And millions in those solitudes, since first The flight of years began, have laid them down In their last sleep—the dead reign there alone.— So shalt thou rest—and what if thou shalt fall Unnoticed by the living—and no friend Take note of thy departure? All that breathe Will share thy destiny. ”
