Before me now a little picture lies-
A little shadow of a childish face,
Childishly sweet, yet with the dawning grace
Of thought and wisdom on her lips and eyes.
Fair, oval, broad-brow’d face-small, delicate head-
Transparent skin, with blue veins shining through-
All the soft outlines, beautiful and true,
Bring me the echo of the words “God said.”
Made “in our image”-sure ’tis that we see,
God’s likeness, in the fair face of a child,
By the world’s sin and passion undefiled-
Ay, as I look, it seems quite plain to me.
The light wherein the little features shine,
Strange, mystic light, so undefined and faint,
So far too pure for any words to paint-
‘Tis a reflection of the Face divine.
Some day the earthly shadows will be cast
Across that sunshine-it may be to dim
Awhile the visible countenance of Him;
But ’twill be there-the likeness-to the last.
Some day the lucid waters, in which lie
Pictured those glorious lineaments, will be
Stirred up and troubled like a stormy sea;-
But they will yet re-settle-by-and-by.
They will re-settle when the soul is still’d,
Its passions, its wild longings, and its pain;
The pure reflection will shine out again
When earth’s hopes are relinquish’d, unfulfill’d.
They will re-settle in those after-years
When life’s hard lessons have been conned and learn’d;
When this child’s beauty will have all return’d,
More lovely for the trouble and the tears.
They will re-settle in the calm of death,
When the sweet eyes are laid asleep, and when
The heart is hush’d. Truly God’s likeness then-
The mirror clear, unsullied by a breath.
Ah! while I look, and trace each tender line,
I think most of the day when I shall see
The dear face in that perfect purity,
Its mortal features clothed with the divine.
This self-same face, but with the image bright,
Nevermore undefined, and faint, and dim;
This self-same face, yet like the face of Him,
In glory and in beauty infinite.
A few random poems:
- Nos Immortales by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Written After Leaving Her At New Burns by William Cowper
- The Golden Age poem – Alfred Austin
- To What Serves Mortal Beauty? poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Unlike, For Example, The Sound Of A Riptooth Saw by Thomas Lux
- Sonnet 111: O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide by William Shakespeare
- Fool’s Money Bags poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Empty Hills by Yvor Winters
- Sing of the Banner at Day-Break. by Walt Whitman
- On A True Friend (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- The Theatre of Illusion by Pierre Corneille
- Владимир Высоцкий – Дорожный дневник: Часть IV
- Николай Глазков – А минувшее все непонятнее ребусов
- An Essay on Man: Epistle II poem – Alexander Pope
- Out Of The Window
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
- Михаил Лермонтов – Чаша жизни
- Михаил Лермонтов – Бухариной
- Михаил Лермонтов – Булевар
- Михаил Лермонтов – Боюсь не смерти я
- Лермонтов – Бородино: Стихотворение “Скажи-ка, дядя, ведь не даром”, читать текст стиха полностью онлайн на Poetry Monster
- Михаил Лермонтов – Бой с барсом (Отрывок Мцыри)
- Михаил Лермонтов – Блистая, пробегают облака
- Михаил Лермонтов – Благодарность
- Михаил Лермонтов – Без вас хочу сказать вам много
- Михаил Лермонтов – Беглец
- Михаил Лермонтов – Бартеневой
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (Куда так проворно, жидовка младая)
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (из Байрона)
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (В избушке позднею порою)
- Михаил Лермонтов – Ах! Ныне я не тот совсем
- Михаил Лермонтов – Арфа
- Михаил Лермонтов – Ангел
- Михаил Лермонтов – А. А. Олениной (Ах! Анна Алексевна)
- Михаил Кузмин – Звезда Афродиты
- Михаил Кузмин – Зимнее солнце
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.