Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LAST YEARS, by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LAST YEARS, by                 Poet Analysis    
First Line: A dog, that has ten years of breath
Last Line: And death takes all of us as one.
Alternate Author Name(s): Davies, W. H.
Subject(s): Animals


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.





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