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:
- Ольга Повещенко – Фотограф смотрит в объектив
- Parallel Lies by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Витамины
- Владимир Высоцкий – Утренняя гимнастика
- Robert Burns: Election Ballad: At the close of the contest for representing the Dumfries Burghs, 1790. Addressed to R. Graham, Esq. of Fintry.
- Федор Сологуб – Так же внятен мне, как прежде
- In Spite Of by Patricia Farley
- Sonnet 95: How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame by William Shakespeare
- Николай Языков – Подражание псалму
- Вера Звягинцева – На смерть Есенина
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Не называй далекой бездной
- Attempted Assassination of the Queen by William Topaz McGonagall
- Free Poetry Competitions – Prepare to Win The Next Poetry Competition That You Enter!
- Feeling Lazy poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster
- Farewell to the Court by Sir Walter Raleigh
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
- Шекспир – Уж если ты разлюбишь – Сонет 90
- Шекспир – У сердца с глазом тайный договор – Сонет 47
- Шекспир – У бедной музы красок больше нет – Сонет 103
- Шекспир – Ты положи с моей любовью рядом – Сонет 117
- Шекспир – Считать часы и спрашивать – Сонет 58
- Шекспир – С любовью связан жизненный мой путь – Сонет 92
- Шекспир – Разлука сердце делит пополам – Сонет 39
- Шекспир – Проснись, любовь – Сонет 56
- Шекспир – Про черный день – Сонет 63
- Шекспир – Пример тебе подобной красоты – Сонет 84
- Шекспир – Прекрасный облик в зеркале ты видишь – Сонет 3
- Шекспир – По совести скажи – Сонет 10
- Шекспир – Но не боюсь и смерть – Сонет 80
- Шекспир – Неужто я, приняв любви венец – Сонет 114
- Шекспир – Не позволяю помыслам ревнивым – Сонет 57
- Шекспир – Мой глаз гравером стал – Сонет 24
- Шекспир – Мои глаза в тебя не влюблены – Сонет 141
- Шекспир – Мне показалось, что была зима – Сонет 97
- Шекспир – Меня не радует твоя печаль – Сонет 34
- Шекспир – Любовь – не кукла жалкая в руках – Сонет 116
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.