How will our unborn children scoff at us
In the good years to come,
The happier years to come,
Because, like driven sheep, we yielded thus,
Before the shearers dumb.
What are the words their wiser lips will say?
“These men had gained the light;
“These women knew the right;
“They had their chance, and let it slip away.
“They did not, when they might.
“They were the first to hear the gospel preached,
“And to believe therein;
“Yet they remained in sin.
“They saw the promised land they might have reached,
“And dared not enter in.
“They might have won their freedom, had they tried;
“No savage laws forbade;
“For them the way was made.
“They might have had the joys for which they cried
“And yet they shrank, afraid.
“Afraid to face-the martyr’s rack and flame?
“The traitor’s dungeon? Nay-
“Of what their world would say-
“The smile, the joke, the thinnest ghost of blame!
“Lord! Lord! What fools were they!”
And we-no longer actors of the stage
We cumber now-maybe
With other eyes shall see
This wasted chance, and with celestial rage
Cry “O what fools were we!”
A few random poems:
- The Kiss — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Composed By The Sea-Side, Near Calais, August 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Омар Хайям – Если любишь, то стойко разлуку терпи
- Après le Bain by William Carlos Williams
- Низами Гянджеви – Не горюй, ибо друг есть
- At The Close Of The Canvass poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Dear Harp of my Country by Thomas Moore
- Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
- Новелла Матвеева – Закон песен
- At Bessemer by Philip Levine
- The Bear, The Fire, And The Snow by Shel Silverstein
- Огюст Барбье – Лев
- Алексей Жемчужников – Полевые цветы
- Feelings Of A Noble Biscayan At One Of Those Funerals by William Wordsworth
- Orlando Furioso Canto 1 by Ludovico Ariosto
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
- Love by Robert Creeley
- Kore by Robert Creeley
- I Know A Man by Robert Creeley
- Goodbye by Robert Creeley
- Four Days In Vermont by Robert Creeley
- Clemente’s Images by Robert Creeley
- Ballad Of The Despairing Husband by Robert Creeley
- America by Robert Creeley
- Age by Robert Creeley
- A Wicker Basket by Robert Creeley
- A Token by Robert Creeley
- A Song by Robert Creeley
- Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came by Robert Browning
- Cavalier Tunes: Marching Along by Robert Browning
- Cavalier Tunes: Give a Rouse by Robert Browning
- By The Fire-Side by Robert Browning
- Boot And Saddle by Robert Browning
- Bishop Blougram’s Apology by Robert Browning
- Before by Robert Browning
- Any Wife To Any Husband by Robert Browning
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.