A BALLAD.
MARGARITA first possest,
If I remember well, my brest,
Margarita first of all;
But when awhile the wanton maid
With my restless heart had play’d,
Martha took the flying ball.
Martha soon did it resign
To the beauteous Catharine.
Beauteous Catharine gave place
(Though loth and angry she to part
With the possession of my heart)
To Eliza’s conquering face.
Eliza till this hour might reign,
Had she not evil counsels ta’en.
Fundamental laws she broke,
And still new favorites she chose,
Till up in arms my passions rose,
And cast away her yoke.
Mary then, and gentle Anne,
Both to reign at once began;
Alternately they sway’d;
And sometimes Mary was the fair,
And sometimes Anne the Crown did wear,
And sometimes both I obey’d.
Another Mary then arose
And did rigorous laws impose;
A mighty tyrant she!
Long, alas! should I have been
Under that iron-scepter’d queen,
Had not Rebecca set me free.
When fair Rebecca set me free,
‘Twas then a golden time with me:
But soon those pleasures fled;
For the gracious princess dy’d,
In her youth and beauty’s pride,
And Judith reigned in her stead.
One month, three days, and half an hour,
Judith held the soveraign power:
Wondrous beautiful her face!
But so weak and small her wit,
That she to govern was unfit,
And so Susanna took her place.
But when Isabella came,
Arm’d with a resistless flame,
And th’ artillery of her eye;
Whilst she proudly march’d about,
Greater conquests to find out,
She beat out Susan by the bye.
But in her place I then obey’d
Black-ey’d Bess, her viceroy-maid;
To whom ensu’d a vacancy:
Thousand worse passions than possest
The interregnum of my breast;
Bless me from such an anarchy!
Gentle Henriette then,
And a third Mary, next began;
Then Joan, and Jane, and Audria;
And then a pretty Thomasine,
And then another Katharine,
And then a long et cætera.
But should I now to you relate,
The strength and riches of their state;
The powder, patches, and the pins,
The ribbons, jewels, and the rings,
The lace, the paint, and warlike things,
That make up all their magazines;
If I should tell the politic arts
To take and keep men’s hearts;
The letters, embassies, and spies,
The frowns, and smiles, and flatteries,
The quarrels, tears, and perjuries
(Numberless, nameless, mysteries!)
And all the little lime-twigs laid,
By Machiavel the waiting-maid;
I more voluminous should grow
(Chiefly if I like them should tell
All change of weathers that befell)
Than Holinshed or Stow.
But I will briefer with them be,
Since few of them were long with me.
An higher and a nobler strain
My present Emperess does claim,
Heleonora, first o’ th’ name;
Whom God grant long to reign!
A few random poems:
- Broccoli by Rina Ferrarelli
- Олег Григорьев – Дачник
- Kumarakom (after the boat tragedy) by Shreekumar Varma
- Robert Burns: Complimentary Versicles To Jessie Lewars: On Her Recovery
- Against Fruition
- Владимир Маяковский – Номер 17
- The Temple Dancing Girl
- Light by Rabindranath Tagore
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “Irish Melodies”. 99. ’Twas One of Those Dreams. Томас Мур.
- Лермонтов – Бородино: Стихотворение “Скажи-ка, дядя, ведь не даром”, читать текст стиха полностью онлайн на Poetry Monster
- Prayer—O Thou Dread Power by Robert Burns
- Владимир Маяковский – Во весь голос
- Autumn by P. K. Page
- All Things Can Tempt Me by William Butler Yeats
- My Love Is Good by William Barnes
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
- To Heal by Nithin Purple
- Time To Transplant by Nijole Miliauskaite
- They Tell Of The Warsaw Uprising by Nijole Miliauskaite
- The Witching Hour by Norma Martiri
- The Walk by Noel Angelo Hurley
- The Song of the Cheerful (but slightly sarcastic) Jesus by Oliver St. John Gogarty
- The place that is dark without space and the moonlight off the pond (The Gray) by Olivia Lewis
- The Last Whisper by Nizar Sartawi
- The Fire by Nin Andrews
- The Blacksmith by Olga Dytyniak
- The Battle of an National Icon by Norma Martiri
- The Visit by Nijole Miliauskaite
- That Summer by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Temporary City by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Synesthesia by Orla McGreevy
- Summer Enclosed In A Semi-Dark Cup by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Sound and Spirit by Oladele Hussein
- Song of Medical Dick and Medical Davy by Oliver St. John Gogarty
- Sleeping for Kafka by Nin Andrews
- Sitting Beside The Very Street by Nijole Miliauskaite
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

Abraham Cowley (1618 – 1667), the Royalist Poet.Poet and essayist Abraham Cowley was born in London, England, in 1618. He displayed early talent as a poet, publishing his first collection of poetry, Poetical Blossoms (1633), at the age of 15. Cowley studied at Cambridge University but was stripped of his Cambridge fellowship during the English Civil War and expelled for refusing to sign the Solemn League and Covenant of 1644. In turn, he accompanied Queen Henrietta Maria to France, where he spent 12 years in exile, serving as her secretary. During this time, Cowley completed The Mistress (1647). Arguably his most famous work, the collection exemplifies Cowley’s metaphysical style of love poetry. After the Restoration, Cowley returned to England, where he was reinstated as a Cambridge fellow and earned his MD before finally retiring to the English countryside. He is buried at Westminster Abbey alongside Geoffrey Chaucer and Edmund Spenser. Cowley is a wonderful poet and an outstanding representative of the English baroque.