Time & Brevity

Sonnet LXXX: A Blast of winde, a momentarie breath

by Barnabe Barnes c. 1571–1609

From A Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnets (1595)

Time & Brevity

A Blast of winde, a momentarie breath,
A watrie bubble simbolizde with ayre,
A sonne blowne Rose, but for a season fayre,
A ghostly glaunce, a skeleton of death,
A morning dew perling the grasse beneath,
Whose moysture Sunnes appearance doth impaire:
A lightning glimse: a Muse of thought and care:
A Planets shot: a shade which followeth:
A voice which vanisheth so soone as heard:
The thriftlesse heire of time: a rowling waue:
A shew no more in action then regard:
A Masse of dust: worlds momentarie slaue
Is man in state of our olde Adam made,
Soone borne to die, soone flourishing to fade.

MLA

Barnes, Barnabe. “Sonnet LXXX: A Blast of winde, a momentarie breath.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/barnes_b/2/.

Chicago

Barnes, Barnabe. “Sonnet LXXX: A Blast of winde, a momentarie breath.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/barnes_b/2/.

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