Or palpitating gems of fire,

Bright butterflies in one brief day

Live but to love and pass away.

And herds of horses scour the plains,

The thickets scream with bird and beast

The love of life burns in their veins,

And from the mightiest to the least

Each preys upon the other's life

In inextinguishable strife.

War rages on the teeming earth;

The hot and sanguinary fight

Begins with each new creature's birth:

A dreadful war where might is right;

[13]

Where still the strongest slay and win,

Where weakness is the only sin.

There is no truce to this drawn battle,

Which ends but to begin again;

The drip of blood, the hoarse death-rattle,

The roar of rage, the shriek of pain,

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