Civilisation

Arthur Henry Adams 1872 (Lawrence) – 1936 (Sydney, New South Wales)



One moment mankind rides the crested wave,
A moment glorious, beyond recall;
And then the wave, with slow and massive fall,
Obliterates the beauty that it gave.
When discrowned king and manumitted slave
Are free and equal to be slaves of all,
Democracies in their wide freedom brawl,
And go down shouting to a common grave.
So one by one the petals of the rose
Shrivel and fade, and all its splendour goes
Back to the earth; and in her arms embraced
Through wintry centuries the dead seeds sleep
Till spring comes troubling them, and they unleap,
Once more their petals on the world to waste.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 24, 2023

32 sec read
67

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBACCDEED
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 600
Words 108
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Arthur Henry Adams

Arthur Henry Adams was a journalist and author. He started his career in New Zealand, though he spent most of it in Australia, and for a short time lived in China and London.  more…

All Arthur Henry Adams poems | Arthur Henry Adams Books

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