In time the Rockies may crumble,
Gibraltar may tumble
(They’re only made of clay),
But our love is here to stay.

These lines come from the popular standard “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by his brother George Gershwin. The song was written for the 1938 film musical *The Goldwyn Follies* and became especially poignant because it was completed and introduced after George Gershwin’s death in 1937. In the movie it is performed by Kenny Baker and is staged as a romantic ballad amid the film’s revue format. The lyric’s grand geological and historical references (the Rockies, Gibraltar) reflect Ira Gershwin’s characteristic wit and urbane imagery, contrasting supposedly permanent monuments with the enduring force of love.

The stanza uses hyperbole and reversal: even the most seemingly immovable natural and imperial symbols—the Rocky Mountains and Gibraltar—may erode or fall, because they are ultimately “only made of clay.” Against that long view of time, the speaker asserts that love can outlast material permanence. The effect is both romantic and lightly ironic: the lyric acknowledges entropy and historical change while insisting on a private, emotional constancy. In the broader song, Gershwin’s language balances sophistication with simplicity, turning a love song into a meditation on what truly endures when fashions, institutions, and even landscapes change.