HURRYING for ever in their restless flight The generations of earth's teeming womb Rise into being and lapse into the tomb Like transient bubbles sparkling in the light; They sink in quick succession out of sight Into the thick insuperable gloom Our futile lives in flashing by illume -- Lightning which mocks the darkness of the night. Nay -- but consider, though we change and die, If men must pass shall Man not still remain? As the unnumbered drops of summer rain Whose changing particles unchanged on high, Fixed, in perpetual motion, yet maintain The mystic bow emblazoned on the sky. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WIDOW'S MITE by FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON AN EXPOSTULATION WITH LOVE by PHILIP AYRES FRAGMENT by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM THE IVORY GATE; AN UNFINISHED DRAFT by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES INTERVAL by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN ODE TO THE SACRED LAMPS by M. L. R. BRESLAR TO FORGIVE IS DIVINE by M. L. R. BRESLAR |