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:
- The Old Maids Story
- poetry_and_politics.html
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Не называй далекой бездной
- Омар Хайям – Кто не грешит?
- An Epitaph 2 (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Илья Эренбург – Жилье в горах, как всякое жилье
- Владимир Корнилов – Обещание
- An Irish Airman Forsees His Death by William Butler Yeats
- Robert Burns: Gude Ale Keeps The Heart Aboon:
- The Self We Share by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Do I
- Владислав Ходасевич – Нет, не шотландской королевой
- Яков Полонский – Песня циганки
- Signet of Eternity by Rabindranath Tagore
- Василий Курочкин – Дама приятная во всех отношениях
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
- Огюст Барбье – Лев
- Огюст Барбье – Леонардо да Винчи
- Огюст Барбье – Кьяйя
- Огюст Барбье – Котел
- Огюст Барбье – Корреджо
- Огюст Барбье – Кола ди Риенци
- Огюст Барбье – Известность
- Огюст Барбье – Идол
- Огюст Барбье – Эпилог
- Огюст Барбье – Джульетта милая
- Огюст Барбье – Джин
- Огюст Барбье – Дант
- Огюст Барбье – Чимароза
- Огюст Барбье – Бук
- Огюст Барбье – Берега моря
- Огюст Барбье – Барабанщик Барра
- Огюст Барбье – Аллегри
- Новелла Матвеева – Закон песен
- Новелла Матвеева – Я, говорит, не воин
- Новелла Матвеева – Художник, незнакомый с поощреньем
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.