A poem by Alistar Crowley (1875-1947)
So it is eighteen years,
Helena, since we met!
A season so endears,
Nor you nor I forget
The fresh young faces that once clove
In that most fiery dawn of love.
We wandered to and fro,
Who knew not how to woo,
Those eighteen years ago,
Sweetheart, when I and you
Exchanged high vows in heaven’s sight
That scarce survived a summer’s night.
What scourge smote from the stars
What madness from the moon?
That night we broke the bars
Was quintessential June,
When you and I beneath the trees
Bartered our bold virginities.
Eighteen -years, months, or hours?
Time is a tyrant’s toy!
Eternal are the flowers!
We are but girl and boy
Yet -since love leapt as swift to-night
As it had never left the light!
For fiercer from the South
Still flames your cruel hair,
And Trojan Helen’s mouth
Still not so ripe and rare
As Helena’s -nor love nor youth
So leaps with lust or thrills with truth.
Helena, still we hold
Flesh firmer, still we mix
Black hair with hair as gold.
Life has but served to fix
Our hearts; love lingers on the tongue,
And who loves once is always young.
The stars are still the same;
The changeful moon endures;
Come without fear or shame,
And draw my mouth to yours!
Youth fails, however flesh be fain;
Manhood and womanhood attain.
Life is a string of pearls,
And you the first I strung.
You left -first flower of girls! –
Life lyric on my tongue,
An indefatigable dance,
An inexhaustible romance!
Blush of love’s dawn, bright bud
That bloomed for my delight,
First blossom of my blood,
Burn in that blood to-night!
Helena, Helena, fiercely fresh,
Your flesh flies fervent to my flesh.
What sage can dare impugn
Man’s immortality?
Our godhead swims, immune
From death and destiny.
Ignored the bubble in the flow
Of love eighteen short years ago!
Time -I embrace all time
As my arm rings your waist.
Space -you surpass, sublime,
As, taking me, we taste
Omnipotence, sense slaying sense,
Soul slaying soul, omniscience.
A few random poems:
- In Adoration by Sappho
- Игорь Северянин – Щит-солнце
- A Cradle Song by William Blake
- On A Political Prisoner by William Butler Yeats
- Ольга Берггольц – И вновь одна, совсем одна в дорогу
- Валерий Брюсов – Гимн Нилу
- “Young England–What Is Then Become Of Old” by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Маяковский – Рифмованные лозунги
- The Fable by Yvor Winters
- By Philemon by William Cowper
- In An Underground Dressing Station by Siegfried Sassoon
- English Poetry. Philip James Bailey. Festus – 23.1. Филип Джеймс Бэйли.
- Вера Павлова – У святителя вместо спины
- On Returning To England poem – Alfred Austin
- Epitaph on a Lap-dog by Robert Burns
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
- Hail, Zaragoza! If With Unwet eye by William Wordsworth
- Hail, Twilight, Sovereign Of One Peaceful Hour by William Wordsworth
- Guilt And Sorrow, Or, Incidents Upon Salisbury Plain by William Wordsworth
- Great Men Have Been Among Us by William Wordsworth
- Goody Blake And Harry Gill by William Wordsworth
- Gipsies by William Wordsworth
- George and Sarah Green by William Wordsworth
- From The Italian Of Michael Angelo by William Wordsworth
- From The Dark Chambers Of Dejection Freed by William Wordsworth
- From The Cuckoo And The Nightingale by William Wordsworth
- Foresight by William Wordsworth
- Fidelity by William Wordsworth
- Feelings Of The Tyrolese by William Wordsworth
- Feelings Of A Noble Biscayan At One Of Those Funerals by William Wordsworth
- Feelings of A French Royalist, On The Disinterment Of The Remains Of The Duke D’Enghien by William Wordsworth
- Extract From The Conclusion Of A Poem Composed In Anticipation Of Leaving School by William Wordsworth
- Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg by William Wordsworth
- Expostulation and Reply by William Wordsworth
- Even As A Dragon’s Eye That Feels The Stress by William Wordsworth
- Epitaphs Translated From Chiabrera by William Wordsworth
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
