Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LIFE AND DEATH: 3, by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LIFE AND DEATH: 3, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: If death be final, what is life, with all
Last Line: A few more inches to a coral-reef.
Subject(s): Death; Life; Dead, The


IF death be final, what is life, with all
Its lavish promises, its thwarted aims,
Its lost ideals, its dishonored claims,
Its uncompleted growth? A prison wall,
Whose heartless stones but echo back our call;
An epitaph recording but our names;
A puppet-stage where joys and griefs and shames
Furnish a demon jester's carnival;
A plan without a purpose or a form;
A footless temple; an unfinished tale.
And men like madrepores through calm and storm
Toil, die to build a branch of fossil frail,
And add from all their dreams, thoughts, acts, belief,
A few more inches to a coral-reef.





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