When the investing darkness growls,
And deep reverberates to deep;
When keyhole whines and chimney howls,
And all the roofs and windows weep;
Then, through the doorless walls of sleep,
The still-sealed ear and shuttered sight,
Phantoms of memory steal and creep,
The very ghosts of sound and light-
Dream-visions and dream-voices of a bygone night.
I see again, I hear again,
Where lightnings flash and house-eaves drip,
A flying swirl of waves and rain-
That storm-path between Sound and Rip.
I feel the swaying of the ship
In every gust that rocks the trees,
And taste that brine upon my lip
And smell the freshness of the breeze
That sped us through the welter of those racing seas.
I hear the menace of the call
To rope and rivet, wheel and mast,
In the swift onrush of the squall,
The challenge of the thundering blast
To daring men as it sweeps past;
And in my dream I have no dread.
Rivet and rope are firm and fast,
The clear lights shining, green and red,
The quiet eyes of sentry watching overhead.
What epic battles pass unsung!
It was a war of gods befell
On that wild night when we were young.
They rode, like cavalry of hell,
The mighty winds, the monstrous swell,
On their white horses, fierce and fleet;
They stood at bay, invincible,
Where pulsed beneath our sliding feet
The faithful iron heart that never lost a beat.
How the sharp sea-spume lashed and stung!
How the salt sea-wind tugged and tare
And clawed and mauled us where we clung,
With panting breasts and streaming hair,
To our frail eyrie in mid-air!
How we exulted in the fight-
With neither haste nor halt to dare
Those Titans furies in their might,
Undaunted and unswerving in our insect flight!
No lap of exquisite repose!
A mortar wherein souls are brayed;
An anvil ringing to the blows
Whereby true men are shaped, and made
Divinely strong and unafraid.
Such gallant sailor-men there be-
Never unready or dismayed,
Though ‘t’s the face of death they see
In cyclone, fire and fog, and white surf on the lee.
Not only in the sylvan bower,
On dreaming hill, by sleeping mere,
The holy place-the sacred hour.
Beset by every form of fear,
Darkness ahead and danger near,
Sorely hard-driven and hard-prest,
But still unspent and of good cheer-
He finds them who can pass the test,
Who never winks an eye and never stays to rest
A few random poems:
- Жан де Лафонтен – Виноградник и Олень
- The Chant of the Indignant of the World by Sunil Sharma
- I Saw His Round Mouth’s Crimson by Wilfred Owen
- A Poet’s Epitaph by William Wordsworth
- Robert Burns: Lines To Mr. John Kennedy:
- Reveille by Primo Levi
- Владимир Вишневский – Мой брат на много лет вперёд
- On Wenlock Edge The Wood’s In Trouble poem – A. E. Housman
- A Summary History of Lord Clive by William Topaz McGonagall
- Winters!!! by Aditya Kumar
- Sonnet I. To My Brother George poem – John Keats poems
- The Best Friend by William Henry Davies
- Kumarakom (after the boat tragedy) by Shreekumar Varma
- Юнна Мориц – Цветок
- Валерий Брюсов – Две вазы
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)
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.