Author: Alger, Horatio, 1832-1899.
Title: Carving a Name.
In: Crown jewels, or, Gems of literature, art and music : being choice selections from the writings and ...
Published: Rock Island, Ill. : L.E. West, c1888.
Format: 632 p., [16] leaves of plates : ill. (some col.), music ; 27 cm.
Other Name: Northrop, Henry Davenport, 1836-1909.
Horatio Alger Collection.
Other Title: Crown Jewels.
Notes: Poem.
Location: PN 6014 .C768 1888a (Special Collections)
Optically scanned and encoded by Mark A. Williams
Horatio Alger Digital Repository, Northern llinois University Libraries
DeKalb, IL
14-March-2000
I WROTE my name upon the sand,
And trusted it would stand for aye;
But soon, alas ! the refluent sea
Had washed my feeble lines away.
I carved my name upon the wood,
And, after years, returned again;
I missed the shadow of the tree
That stretched of old upon the plain.
To solid marble next my name
I gave as a perpetual trust;
An earthquake rent it to its base,
And now it lies o'erlaid with dust.
All these have failed. In wiser mood
I turn and ask myself, "What then?
If I would have my name endure,
I'll write it on the hearts of men,
' In characters of living light,
From kindly words and actions wrought;
And these, beyond the reach of time,
Shall live immortal as my thought."