Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BRIEF LIFE, by KATHARINE LEE BATES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BRIEF LIFE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Brief as the creaming waves that break and run
Last Line: And we are gone; yet the least life holds all.
Subject(s): Life; Light


Brief as the creaming waves that break and run
Back to the deep, as butterflies that flitter
From flower to flower, as icicles that glitter
Their keen defiance to the fatal sun;
Brief as from tiny breast of cinnamon
The bluebird's warble, or the swallow's twitter,
This life of ours. Though it be sweet or bitter,
'Tis but a wing-beat and the flight is done.

Yet on the lip the billow's windy froth
Tastes of the sea; summer is in the call
Of bird, in airy motion of the moth.
There sparkles in that fragile crystal lance
The miracle of light. 'Tis but a glance
And we are gone; yet the least life holds all.





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