Who does not feel desire unending
To solace through his daily strife,
With some mysterious Mental Blending,
The hungry loneliness of life?
Until, by sudden passion shaken,
As terriers shake a rat at play,
He finds, all blindly, he has taken
The old, Hereditary way.
Yet, in the moment of communion,
The very heart of passion’s fire,
His spirit spurns the mortal union,
“Not this, not this, the Soul’s desire!”
* * * *
Oh You, by whom my life is riven,
And reft away from my control,
Take back the hours of passion given!
Love me one moment from your soul.
Although I once, in ardent fashion,
Implored you long to give me this;
(In hopes to stem, or stifle, passion)
Your hair to touch, your lips to kiss
Now that your gracious self has granted
The loveliness you hold as naught,
I find, alas! not that I wanted–
Possession has not stifled Thought.
Desire its aim has only shifted,–
Built hopes upon another plan,
And I in love for you have drifted
Beyond all passion known to man.
Beyond all dreams of soft caresses
The solacing of any kiss,–
Beyond the fragrance of your tresses
(Once I had sold my soul for this!)
But now I crave no mortal union
(Thanks for that sweetness in the past);
I need some subtle, strange communion,
Some sense that _I_ join _you_, at last.
Long past the pulse and pain of passion,
Long left the limits of all love,–
I crave some nearer, fuller fashion,
Some unknown way, beyond, above,–
Some infinitely inner fusion,
As Wave with Water; Flame with Fire,–
Let me dream once the dear delusion
That I am You, Oh, Heart’s Desire!
Your kindness lent to my caresses
That beauty you so lightly prize,–
The midnight of your sable tresses,
The twilight of your shadowed eyes.
Ah, for that gift all thanks are given!
Yet, Oh, adored, beyond control,
Count all the passionate past forgiven
And love me once, once, from your soul.
A few random poems:
- Ольга Высотская – Волны
- Гавриил Державин – Амур и Психея
- I closed my eyes to creation by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Ludwig Von Beethoven’s Return To Vienna by Rita Dove
- On the Burning of Lord Mansfield’s Library by William Cowper
- The Long Hill by Sara Teasdale
- The Need To Love
- In The Forum poem – Alfred Austin
- Владимир Маяковский – Рабочий, читай постановление СТО от 15 июня 1921 года (Главполитпросвет №222)
- Олег Сердобольский – Черная считалка
- The Bull Of Bendylaw by Sylvia Plath
- Vows
- Николай Гумилев – Командиру 5-го Александровского полка
- Sappho Redivivus: A Fragment by Robert Burns
- Dying
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
- Slant by Stephen Dunn
- Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry by Stephen Dunn
- Named by Stephen Dunn
- Landscape At The End Of The Century by Stephen Dunn
- I Come Home Wanting To Touch Everyone by Stephen Dunn
- Essay On The Personal by Stephen Dunn
- Biography In The First Person by Stephen Dunn
- At The Smithville Methodist Church by Stephen Dunn
- Allegory Of The Cave by Stephen Dunn
- The White Peacock by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The Quality of Courage by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The Innovator by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The Hemp by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The General Public by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The Fiddling Wood by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The Drug-Shop, or, Endymion in Edmonstoun by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The City Revisited by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The Breaking Point by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Talk by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Road and Hills by Stephen Vincent Benet
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

Violet Nicolson ( 1865 – 1904); otherwise known as Adela Florence Nicolson (née Cory), was an English poetess who wrote under the pseudonym of Laurence Hope, however she became known as Violet Nicolson. In the early 1900s, she became a best-selling author. She committed suicide and is buried in Madras, now Chennai, India.