This trumpeter of nothingness, employed
To keep our reason dull and null and void.
This man of wind and froth and flux will sell
The wares of any who reward him well.
Praising whatever he is paid to praise,
He hunts for ever-newer, smarter ways
To make the gilt seen gold; the shoddy, silk;
To cheat us legally; to bluff and bilk
By methods which no jury can prevent
Because the law’s not broken, only bent.

This mind for hire, this mental prostitute
Can tell the half-lie hardest to refute;
Knows how to hide an inconvenient fact
And when to leave a doubtful claim unbacked;
Manipulates the truth but not too much,
And if his patter needs the Human Touch,
Skillfully artless, artlessly naive,
Wears his convenient heart upon his sleeve.

He uses words that once were strong and fine,
Primal as sun and moon and bread and wine,
True, honourable, honoured, clear and keen,
And leaves them shabby, worn, diminished, mean.
He takes ideas and trains them to engage
In the long little wars big combines wage…
He keeps his logic loose, his feelings flimsy;
Turns eloquence to cant and wit to whimsy;
Trims language till it fits his clients, pattern
And style’s a glossy tart or limping slattern.

He studies our defences, finds the cracks
And where the wall is weak or worn, attacks.
lie finds the fear that’s deep, the wound that’s tender,
And mastered, outmanouevered, we surrender.
We who have tried to choose accept his choice
And tired succumb to his untiring voice.
The dripping tap makes even granite soften
We trust the brand-name we have heard so often
And join the queue of sheep that flock to buy;
We fools who know our folly, you and I.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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

• An Elegy On The Death Of A Mad Dog by Oliver Goldsmith by Poetry In English
• Absolute Divine by Nithin Purple by Poetry In English
• A Sculptor’s Vow by Nikhil Srinivas by Poetry In English
• A woman’s desire by Oriada Dajko by Poetry In English
• The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith by Oliver Goldsmith
• Poetic Abbreviations, Poetry Abbreviations by Fledermaus
• I Remember, I Remember by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• How Distant by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• Home Is So Sad by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• Homage To A Government by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• High Windows by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• He Hears That His Beloved Has Become Engaged by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• Grief by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• Going by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• Friday Night At The Royal Station Hotel by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• For Sidney Bechet by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• First Sight by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• Far Out by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• Faith Healing by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin
• Essential Beauty by Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works