Who, in a spirit of supersensitive self-abnegation, had placed upon
his tombstone that here lay “one whose name is writ in water.”
If your name is writ in water,
As your humble tombstone saith,
Then it forms a crystal fountain
Born to mock at mortal death.
If your name is writ in water,
’Tis the water of the stream
Where the wise of all the nations
Stoop to drink and stay to dream.
If your name is writ in water,
It has flowed into the sea
Of the ages past and present--
And of Immortality.