I am the family face;
Flesh perishes, I live on,
Project trait and trace
Through time to times anon,
And leaping from place to place
OVer oblivion.
The years-heired feature that can
In curve and voice and eye
Despise the human span
Of durance - that is I ;
The eternal thing in man
That heeds no call to die.
Thomas Hardy - Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses