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:
- Robert Burns: The Inventory: In answer to a mandate by the Surveyor of the Taxes
- Schlummerland – Slumberland / CD by Roland Zoss
- Владимир Маяковский – Голодные! Пан Украину грабит… (РОСТА №106)
- Peace Universal Good
- Николай Языков – Поэт (Радушно рабствует поэту)
- Dead Musicians by Siegfried Sassoon
- Константин Батюшков – На смерть И.П. Пнина
- The Village Garden poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Prison Souvenirs, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: Prière by T. Wignesan.
- Альфред Теннисон – Волшебница Шалот
- God’s Work Ethics
- Epitaph for Mr. Gabriel Richardson, Brewer by Robert Burns
- Николай Глазков – 9-е мая
- One Inch Tall by Shel Silverstein
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “Irish Melodies”. 44. She Is Far From the Land. Томас Мур.
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
- A PANEGYRIC TO SIR LEWIS PEMBERTON by Robert Herrick
- A New Year’s Gift, Sent To Sir Simeon Steward by Robert Herrick
- A MEDITATION FOR HIS MISTRESS by Robert Herrick
- A MEAN IN OUR MEANS by Robert Herrick
- A Lyric to Mirth by Robert Herrick
- A HYMN TO VENUS AND CUPID by Robert Herrick
- A HYMN TO THE GRACES by Robert Herrick
- A Hymn to Love by Robert Herrick
- A HYMN TO BACCHUS by Robert Herrick
- A Dialogue Betwixt Himself and Mistress Eliza Wheeler, under the Name of Amarillis by Robert Herrick
- A COUNTRY LIFE:TO HIS BROTHER, MR THOMAS HERRICK by Robert Herrick
- A Conjuration To Electra by Robert Herrick
- A Christmas Carol, Sung to the King in the Presence at White-Hall by Robert Herrick
- A Child’s Grace by Robert Herrick
- A CANTICLE TO APOLLO by Robert Herrick
- A Bucolic Betwixt Two; Lacon and Thyrsis by Robert Herrick
- Under Cover of Night by Robert Desnos
- The Voice of Robert Desnos by Robert Desnos
- The Ring of Stars by Robert Desnos
- Sleep Spaces by Robert Desnos
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.