| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | April 23 | | Cervantes | | By William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) |
| | (Died at Madrid, April 23, 1616)
AS o’er the laughter-moving page | |
| Thy readers, oh, Cervantes, bend, | |
| What shouts of mirth, through age on age, | |
| From every clime of earth ascend! | |
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| For not in thy fair Spain alone, | 5 |
| But in the sunny tropic isles, | |
| And far, to either frozen zone, | |
| Thy memory lives embalmed in smiles. | |
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| Dark woods, when thou didst hold the pen, | |
| Clothed this great land from sea to sea, | 10 |
| Where millions of the sons of men | |
| Now take delight in honoring thee. | |
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| To thy renown the centuries bring | |
| No shadow of a coming night. | |
| The keen, bright shafts which thou didst fling | 15 |
| At folly still are keen and bright. | | | | |
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