BOOK I (excerpt)
I sing the man who Judah’s sceptre bore
In that right hand which held the crook before;
Who from best poet, best of kings did grow;
The two chief gifts Heav’n could on man bestow.
Much danger first, much toil did he sustain,
Whilst Saul and Hell cross’d his strong fate in vain.
Nor did his crown less painful work afford;
Less exercise his patience, or his sword;
So long her conqueror fortunes spite pursued;
Till with unwearied virtue he subdued
All homebred malice, and all foreign boasts;
Their strength was armies, his the Lord of Hosts.
Thou, who didst David’s royal stem adorn,
And gav’st him birth from whom thy self wast born;
Who didst in triumph at death’s court appear,
And slew’st him with thy nails, thy cross and spear,
Whilst Hell’s black tyrant trembled to behold,
The glorious light he forfeited of old;
Who Heav’ns glad burden now, and justest pride,
Sit’st high enthron’d next thy great Father’s side,
(Where hallowed flames help to adorn that head
Which once the blushing thorns environed,
Till crimson drops of precious blood hung down
Like rubies to enrich thine humble crown.)
Even thou my breast with such blest rage inspire,
As mov’d the tuneful strings of David’s lyre,
Guide my bold steps with thine old travelling flame,
In these untrodden paths to sacred fame;
Lo, with pure hands thy heav’enly fires to take,
My well-chang’d Muse I a chaste vestal make!
From earth’s vain joys, and love’s soft witchcraft free,
I consecrate my Magdalene to thee!
Lo, this great work, a temple to thy praise,
On polish’d pillars of strong verse I raise!
A temple, where if thou vouchsafe to dwell,
It Solomon’s, and Herod’s shall excel.
Too long the Muses-land have heathen bin;
Their gods too long were devils, and virtues sin;
But thou, Eternal Word, has call’d forth me
Th’ apostle, to convert that world to thee;
T’ unbind the charms that in slight fables lie,
And teach that truth is purest poesy.
…
A few random poems:
- Exeat by Stevie Smith
- Late realizations by Tanisha Avarsekar
- The Lion by Vachel Lindsay
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мне скулы от досады сводит
- Fragment of an Ode to Maia poem – John Keats poems
- Deer Enclosure by Wang Wei
- Straw sandal half sunk by Yosa Buson
- Новелла Матвеева – Будьте, как дети
- To… (Kern) poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Pioneers! O Pioneers! by Walt Whitman
- Money by William Henry Davies
- Robert Burns: A New Psalm For The Chapel Of Kilmarnock: On the Thanksgiving-Day for His Majesty’s Recovery.
- Владимир Маяковский – Враги хлеба
- Epitaph for Mr. Walter Riddell by Robert Burns
- Now What Is Love by Sir Walter Raleigh
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
- Two Hundred Years After by Siegfried Sassoon
- Twelve Months After by Siegfried Sassoon
- Trench Duty by Siegfried Sassoon
- Tree and Sky by Siegfried Sassoon
- Together by Siegfried Sassoon
- Today by Siegfried Sassoon
- To Victory by Siegfried Sassoon
- To My Brother by Siegfried Sassoon
- To Leonide Massine in ‘Cleopatra’ by Siegfried Sassoon
- To His Dead Body by Siegfried Sassoon
- To Any Dead Officer by Siegfried Sassoon
- To a Very Wise Man by Siegfried Sassoon
- To a Childless Woman by Siegfried Sassoon
- Thrushes by Siegfried Sassoon
- ‘They’ by Siegfried Sassoon
- Their Frailty by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Working Party by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Troops by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Tombstone-Maker by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Road by Siegfried Sassoon
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.