Spirit and Breath of Life, whate’er Thy name!
Bear with Thy creature, Man,
That makes his dwelling-place a blot of shame
Upon the Ordered Plan.
Not Thy hand, O Divine Designer, hurled
Athwart the starlit skies
One blood-stained, greed-diseased, hate-eaten world,
To shock celestial eyes.
Not Thy default, O Beautiful, this crust
Of fratricidal crime,
These maggot-breeds of hunger and of lust
That Thy fair work begrime.
But ours, who mock Thee from the highest place,
And in the light of day;
Who claim to lead an upward-struggling race,
And will not seek the way.
Guards of the human birthright, at Thy call-
A city sacked and burned;
Guards of the house that is the home of all,
But whence the weak are spurned.
Brothers, to whom the outcast brothers cry
As with a voice unknown;
Stewards of Nature’s bounty, that deny
The lawful heirs their own.
Thou that hast made us men, and earth so fair,
To be so vilely used,
Give space for late repentance and repair
Of sacred trust abused.
Give time, Eternal, that we stanch these tears,
Give time to heal this sore,
That our brief speck amid the shining spheres
Disgrace its birth no more.
But sail ethereal seas, an orb of light,
To bear Thy purpose on
Until it fades into the cosmic night
Where the dead worlds have gone.
A few random poems:
- Others, I Am Not the First poem – A. E. Housman
- Dedication To A Book Of Stories Selected From The Irish Novelists by William Butler Yeats
- Orpheus by William Shakespeare
- Telescopes In The Square by Graham Rowlands
- Goddess by Samuel Stephen Wakdok
- Alimony by Shel Silverstein
- Ольга Берггольц – Огонь, и воду, и медные трубы
- Lamentations by Siegfried Sassoon
- Memoriam A. H. H.: 72. Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- A Highly Valuable Chain Of Thoughts poem – Andrew Lang poems
- The Editor’s Guests by Will McKendree Carleton
- do_not_get_angry.html
- Olney Hymn 67: Longing To Be With Christ by William Cowper
- The Return by Rudyard Kipling
- Олег Бундур – Совет
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- In The New Sun by Philip Levine
- In A Vacant House by Philip Levine
- In A Light Time by Philip Levine
- I Won, You Lost by Philip Levine
- I Sing The Body Electric by Philip Levine
- How Much Earth by Philip Levine
- House Of Silence by Philip Levine
- Holy Day by Philip Levine
- Holding On by Philip Levine
- Heaven by Philip Levine
- Green Thumb by Philip Levine
- Gin by Philip Levine
- Gangrene by Philip Levine
- For The Country by Philip Levine
- Fist by Philip Levine
- Father by Philip Levine
- Everything by Philip Levine
- Coming Close by Philip Levine
- Clouds Above The Sea by Philip Levine
- Clouds by Philip Levine
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works

Ada Cambridge (1844 – 1926), also known as Ada Cross, was an English-born Australian author and poetess. She wrote more than 25 works of fiction, three volumes of poetry and two autobiographical works.