A Dedication
by Adam Lindsay Gordon
They are rhymes rudely strung with intent less
Of sound than of words,
In lands where bright blossoms are scentless,
And songless bright birds;
Where, with fire and fierce drought on her tresses,
Insatiable Summer oppresses
Sere woodlands and sad wildernesses,
And faint flocks and herds.
Where in drieariest days, when all dews end,
And all winds are warm,
Wild Winter’s large floodgates are loosen’d,
And floods, freed by storm;
From broken-up fountain heads, dash on
Dry deserts with long pent up passion–
Here rhyme was first framed without fashion,
Song shaped without form.
Whence gather’d?–The locust’s glad chirrup
May furnish a stave;
The ring os rowel and stirrup,
The wash of a wave.
The chauntof a marsh frog in rushes
That chimes through the pauses and hushes
Of nightfall, the torrent that gushes,
The tempests that rave.
In the deep’ning of dawn, when it dapples
The dusk of the sky,
With streaks like the redd’ning of apples,
The ripening of rye.
To eastward, when cluster by cluster,
Dim stars and dull planets, that muster,
Wax wan in a world of white lustre
That spreads far and high.
In the gathering of night gloom o’er head, in
The still silent change,
All fire-flush’d when forest trees redden
On slopes of the range.
When the gnarl’d knotted trunks Eucalyptian
Seemed carved like weird columns Egyptian
With curious device–quaint inscription,
And heiroglyph strange.
In the Spring, when the wattle gold trembles
‘Twixt shadow and shine,
When each dew-laden air draught resembles
A long draught of wine;
When the skyline’s blue burnished resistance
Makes deeper the dreamiest distance,
Some song in all hearts hath existence,–
Such songs have been mine.
A few random poems:
- There Came a Soul by Rita Dove
- Not Fear by Rafael Guillen
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Я знаю, люблю я бесплодно
- a_city_one_wish.html
- twinkletoes.html
- To a Commencement of Scoundrels by Samuel Hazo
- Валерий Брюсов – Гимн Атону
- Виктор Гусев – Песня о Москве
- Алексей Николаевич Толстой – Колыбельная
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Две прелестницы
- St. Winefred’s Well poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- For A Picture Of St. Dorothea poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Николай Языков – Д. Н. Свербееву (Во имя Руси, милый брат)
- Константин Бальмонт – На мотив псалма XVIII-гo
- Алексей Толстой – Смеркалось, жаркий день бледнел неуловимо
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
- Robert Burns: I Hae Been At Crookieden:
- Robert Burns: Ye Jacobites By Name:
- Robert Burns: Such A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation:
- Robert Burns: Frae The Friends And Land I Love:
- Robert Burns: Nithsdale’s Welcome Hame:
- Robert Burns: Address To The Shade Of Thomson: On Crowning His Bust at Ednam, Roxburghshire, with a Wreath of Bays.
- Robert Burns: Sweet Afton :
- Robert Burns: My Bonie Bell:
- Robert Burns: Thou Fair Eliza:
- Robert Burns: O For Ane An’ Twenty, Tam :
- Robert Burns: My Tocher’s The Jewel:
- Robert Burns: Altho’ He Has Left Me:
- Robert Burns: My Eppie Macnab:
- Robert Burns: Johnie Lad, Cock Up Your Beaver:
- Robert Burns: Damon And Sylvia: Fragment
- Robert Burns: Lovely Polly Stewart:
- Robert Burns: You’re Welcome, Willie Stewart:
- Robert Burns: Epigram At Brownhill Inn:
- Robert Burns: The Gallant Weaver:
- Robert Burns: Verses On The Destruction Of The Woods Near Drumlanrig:
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

Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833 – 1870) was an Australian or British-Australian poet, horseman, police officer and politician. He is considered to be one of the first national Australian poets.