| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | March 26 | | Cecil Rhodes | | By Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) |
| | (Died March 26, 1902)
WHEN that great Kings return to clay, or Emperors in their pride, | |
| Grief of a day shall fill a day because its creature died. | |
| But we—we reckon not with those whom the mere Fates ordain | |
| This Power that wrought on us, and goes back to the Power again. | |
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| Dreamer devout, by vision led beyond our guess or reach, | 5 |
| The travail of his spirit bred cities in place of speech: | |
| So huge the all-mastering thought that drove; so brief the term allowed. | |
| Nations, not words, he linked to prove his faith before the crowd. | |
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| It is his will that he look forth across the lands he won:— | |
| The granite of the Ancient North, great spaces washed with sun. | 10 |
| There shall he patient make his seat, (as when the death he dared,) | |
| And there await a people’s feet in the paths that he prepared. | |
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| There till the vision he foresaw splendid and whole arise, | |
| And unimagined empires draw to council ’neath his skies, | |
| The immense and brooding Spirit still shall quicken and control. | 15 |
| Living, he was the land, and dead, his soul shall be her soul. | | | | |
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