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How Brief Is Forever?

Wallace Dean LaBenne

How Grand is the Canyon? How great China's Wall?
How Mammoth is the Cave? How Rome-like the Fall?

How brief is forever? How lengthy one day?
How broad is destruction? How narrow the way?

How deep is the wellspring? How lofty the rise?
How dwarfed is pretension? How huge is disguise?

How harmful is vengeance? How humane mercy?
How vile is anger? How fine is pity?

How painful is fibbing? How curative truth?
How fettered is crudeness? How freeing is couth?

How bad is contention? How good harmony?
How wrong is division? How right unity?

How Dark are the Ages? How bright Renaissance?
How Brushed are the Sages? How sound the nuance?
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Submitted on May 01, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
1

Quick analysis:

Scheme AA BB CC DD EE DD FF
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 621
Words 112
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2
Full analysis for How Brief Is Forever? »

Wallace Dean LaBenne

Professor, therapist, author and poet. more…

All Wallace Dean LaBenne poems | Wallace Dean LaBenne Books

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    "How Brief Is Forever?" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/73797/how-brief-is-forever?>.

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