Quote#Death
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
Quote byWilliam Cullen Bryant · 1794–1878
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Thanatopsis (1817–1821), l. 73. Note: The edition of 1821 read, "The innumerable caravan that moves / To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take"..
English (original)
So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan which moves To that mysterious realm, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
— William Cullen Bryant
More from William Cullen Bryant
The victory of endurance born.
Heed not the night; a summer lodge amid the wild is mine — 'Tis shadowed by the tulip-tree, 'tis mantled by the vine.
These are the gardens of the Desert, these The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful, For which the speech of England has no name— The Prairies.
When April winds Grew soft, the maple burst into a flush Of scarlet flowers. The tulip tree, high up, Opened in airs of June her multitude Of golden chalices to humming-birds And silken-wing'd insects of the sky.
The summer morn is bright and fresh, the birds are darting by, As if they loved to breast the breeze that sweeps the cool clear sky.
Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again; The eternal years of God are hers; But Error, wounded, writhes with pain, And dies among his worshippers.