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