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...COUNSEIL TO A BACHELER by MARIANNE MOORE AN OLD WOMAN: 2. HARVEST by EDITH SITWELL WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL HESTER PRYNNE? by KAREN SWENSON THE LAUGHERS by LOUIS UNTERMEYER A BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 8 by THOMAS CAMPION TO A GENTLEMAN & LADY ON THE DEATH ... CHILD NAMED AVIS by PHILLIS WHEATLEY AN OLD CASTLE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH TO JOHN DRYDEN, ESQ.; POET LAUREATE AND HISTOGRAPHER ROYAL by PHILIP AYRES |