Late, late, the prize is drawn, the goal attained,
The Heart’s Desire fulfilled, Love’s guerdon gained.
Wealth’s use is past, Fame’s crown of laurel mocks
The downward-drooping head and grizzled locks.
The end is reached-the end of toil and strife-
The end of life.
Love flowers and fades like grass, and flowers again;
The spendthrift lovers waste themselves in vain;
Their fiery passions burn out one by one,
And then, alas! when their best days are done,
Spirit and body find their perfect mate-
So late! So late!
Long-sought, long seeking, through the lonely years,
The wanderers meet to weep their useless tears
For time and chance irrevocably flown,
Dear hopes outlived and happy faiths outgrown,
Children unborn, the myriad joys unseen
That might have been.
Not for the spring and morning-time of youth
The perfect flower of slow-unfolding truth,
The perfect love, that dreams of youth foretell,
But youth knows not and youth could never tell;
That light celestial, as of sunset fires
When day expires.
Late comes the gift that crowns the hungry quest,
Like ripe wheat-harvest in a land at rest,
And comes alone, a consecrated cup,
To those proved worthy to sit down and sup.
To them-aye, aye, despite their treasure lost,
‘T’is worth the cost.
‘T’is worth the cost to reach the heights at last,
Ere eyes are dim and daylight overpast.
To see one aim achieved, one dream fulfilled,
Ere striving brain and trusting heart are stilled.
To live one glorious hour-its price of pain
Is never paid in vain.
A few random poems:
- A Secret by Sylvia Plath
- The Other Two by Sylvia Plath
- On The Astrologers (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Peter by Marianne Moore
- Sting by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Toad Dreams by Marge Piercy
- Sonnet 135: Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy will by William Shakespeare
- Dance To It by Shel Silverstein
- Defamation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Fierce Mooning by Satish Verma
- Violet Beauregarde… by Roald Dahl
- Considering The Snail by Thom Gunn
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Молитва
- Post coitum omne animal triste est sive gallus et mulier by T. Wignesan.
- The Columbian Exchange Beginning With Spanish Colonization
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
- Poor Mailie’s Elegy by Robert Burns
- Poem on Sensibility by Robert Burns
- Pegasus at Wanlockhead by Robert Burns
- Paraphrase of the First Psalm by Robert Burns
- One Night as I did Wander by Robert Burns
- On the late Captain Grose’s Peregrinations by Robert Burns
- On the Death of Robert Dundas, Esq., of Arniston by Robert Burns
- On the Death of John M’Leod, Esq. by Robert Burns
- On the Birth of a Posthumous Child by Robert Burns
- On Tam the Chapman by Robert Burns
- On seeing Mrs. Kemble in Yarico by Robert Burns
- On Scaring some Water-Fowl in Lock Turit by Robert Burns
- On Glenriddell’s Fox breaking his chain: A Fragment by Robert Burns
- On Elphinstone’s Translation of Martial’s Epigrams by Robert Burns
- On Chloris requesting a sprig of blossom’d thorn by Robert Burns
- Oh Wert Thou In The Cauld Blast by Robert Burns
- Ode, Sacred to the Memory of Mrs. Oswald of Auchencruive by Robert Burns
- Ode on the Departed Regency Bill by Robert Burns
- Ode for General Washington’s Birthday by Robert Burns
- Note to Mr. Renton of Lamerton by Robert Burns
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.