A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)
Ruggiero, to amaze the British host,
And wake more wonder in their wondering ranks,
The bridle of his winged courser loosed,
And clapped his spurs into the creature’s flanks;
High in the air, even to the topmost banks
Of crudded cloud, uprose the flying horse,
And now above the Welsh, and now the Manx,
And now across the sea he shaped his course,
Till gleaming far below lay Erin’s emerald shores.
There round Hibernia’s fabled realm he coasted,
Where the old saint had left the holy cave,
Sought for the famous virtue that it boasted
To purge the sinful visitor and save.
Thence back returning over land and wave,
Ruggiero came where the blue currents flow,
The shores of Lesser Brittany to lave,
And, looking down while sailing to and fro,
He saw Angelica chained to the rock below.
‘Twas on the Island of Complaint — well named,
For there to that inhospitable shore,
A savage people, cruel and untamed,
Brought the rich prize of many a hateful war.
To feed a monster that bestead them sore,
They of fair ladies those that loveliest shone,
Of tender maidens they the tenderest bore,
And, drowned in tears and making piteous moan,
Left for that ravening beast, chained on the rocks alone.
Thither transported by enchanter’s art,
Angelica from dreams most innocent
(As the tale mentioned in another part)
Awoke, the victim for that sad event.
Beauty so rare, nor birth so excellent,
Nor tears that make sweet Beauty lovelier still,
Could turn that people from their harsh intent.
Alas, what temper is conceived so ill
But, Pity moving not, Love’s soft enthralment will?
On the cold granite at the ocean’s rim
These folk had chained her fast and gone their way;
Fresh in the softness of each delicate limb
The pity of their bruising violence lay.
Over her beauty, from the eye of day
To hide its pleading charms, no veil was thrown.
Only the fragments of the salt sea-spray
Rose from the churning of the waves, wind-blown,
To dash upon a whiteness creamier than their own.
Carved out of candid marble without flaw,
Or alabaster blemishless and rare,
Ruggiero might have fancied what he saw,
For statue-like it seemed, and fastened there
By craft of cunningest artificer;
Save in the wistful eyes Ruggiero thought
A teardrop gleamed, and with the rippling hair
The ocean breezes played as if they sought
In its loose depths to hide that which her hand might not.
Pity and wonder and awakening love
Strove in the bosom of the Moorish Knight.
Down from his soaring in the skies above
He urged the tenor of his courser’s flight.
Fairer with every foot of lessening height
Shone the sweet prisoner. With tightening reins
He drew more nigh, and gently as he might:
“O lady, worthy only of the chains
With which his bounden slaves the God of Love constrains,
“And least for this or any ill designed,
Oh, what unnatural and perverted race
Could the sweet flesh with flushing stricture bind,
And leave to suffer in this cold embrace
That the warm arms so hunger to replace?”
Into the damsel’s cheeks such color flew
As by the alchemy of ancient days
If whitest ivory should take the hue
Of coral where it blooms deep in the liquid blue.
Nor yet so tightly drawn the cruel chains
Clasped the slim ankles and the wounded hands,
But with soft, cringing attitudes in vain
She strove to shield her from that ardent glance.
So, clinging to the walls of some old manse,
The rose-vine strives to shield her tender flowers,
When the rude wind, as autumn weeks advance,
Beats on the walls and whirls about the towers
And spills at every blast her pride in piteous showers.
And first for choking sobs she might not speak,
And then, “Alas!” she cried, “ah, woe is me!”
And more had said in accents faint and weak,
Pleading for succor and sweet liberty.
But hark! across the wide ways of the sea
Rose of a sudden such a fierce affray
That any but the brave had turned to flee.
Ruggiero, turning, looked. To his dismay,
Lo, where the monster came to claim his quivering prey!
A few random poems:
- The Bangle Sellers by Sarojini Naidu
- Омар Хайям – О мудрец, если тот или этот дурак
- In Spring, Santa Barbara by Sara Teasdale
- Vaudracour And Julia by William Wordsworth
- The Source by W. S. Merwin
- Константин Бальмонт – Надгробные цветы
- Robert Burns: Clarinda, Mistress Of My Soul:
- E.A. Nov. 6, 1900 by John Oxenham
- The Rose Of The World by William Butler Yeats
- Альфред де Мюссе – Да, женщины, тут нет ошибки
- Pied Beauty poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Domestic Peace by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- The Arrow by William Butler Yeats
- Where We Live Now by Philip Levine
- Goliath Of Gath by Phillis Wheatley
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
- The Kiss: A Dialogue by Robert Herrick
- His Poetry His Pillar by Robert Herrick
- His Mistress to Him at his Farewell by Robert Herrick
- His Loss by Robert Herrick
- His Last Request to Julia by Robert Herrick
- Delight in Disorder by Robert Herrick
- An Ode of the Birth of our Saviour by Robert Herrick
- AN ODE FOR BEN JONSON by Robert Herrick
- AN HYMN TO THE MUSES by Robert Herrick
- An Epitaph Upon A Virgin by Robert Herrick
- AN EPITAPH UPON A CHILD by Robert Herrick
- AMBITION by Robert Herrick
- ALL THINGS DECAY AND DIE by Robert Herrick
- A VOW TO VENUS by Robert Herrick
- A Thanksgiving to God for His House by Robert Herrick
- A Ring Presented to Julia by Robert Herrick
- A REQUEST TO THE GRACES by Robert Herrick
- A Pastoral Upon The Birth of Prince Charles: Presented to the King, and Set by Mr Nic. Laniere by Robert Herrick
- A PASTORAL SUNG TO THE KING by Robert Herrick
- A PARANAETICALL, OR ADVISIVE VERSETO HIS FRIEND, MR JOHN WICKS by Robert Herrick
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)
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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
Alan Seeger (1888-1916) was an American war poet who fought and died in World War I during the Battle of the Somme, serving in the French Foreign Legion. Seeger was the brother of Charles Seeger, a noted American pacifist and musicologist and the uncle of folk musician, Pete Seeger.