James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.
April 23Cervantes
By William Cullen Bryant (17941878)(Died at Madrid, April 23, 1616)
A
Thy readers, oh, Cervantes, bend,
What shouts of mirth, through age on age,
From every clime of earth ascend!
But in the sunny tropic isles,
And far, to either frozen zone,
Thy memory lives embalmed in smiles.
Clothed this great land from sea to sea,
Where millions of the sons of men
Now take delight in honoring thee.
No shadow of a coming night.
The keen, bright shafts which thou didst fling
At folly still are keen and bright.