A dog, that has ten years of breath, Can count the number left to me, To reach my seventy as a man. In five years' time a bird is born,Whose shorter life is then my own, Reducing still the human span. Soon after that, a butterfly, Who lives for but a year or less, Reminds me that the end is near; And that, when I have lived his life, A shorter life is still to come — Which brings the Summer's insect here. And when at last that insect comes, That lives for but a single day, He makes my life his very own: Man, dog, and bird and butterfly And insect yield their separate lives — And Death takes all of us as one. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE KEEP-SAKE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE TO THE PIOUS MEMORY OF THE YOUNG LADY MRS. ANNE KILLIGREW by JOHN DRYDEN IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 30 by ALFRED TENNYSON THE ANGELS OF BUENA VISTA by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER ADAM'S CURSE by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS |