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:
- Mind Extempore by Pawan Kumar
- Владимир Маяковский – Типографы книги делают… (РОСТА №241)
- The Grammar Lesson by Steve Kowit
- A Crimson Carpet by Pamela Griffiths
- Такахама Кёси – Давнишний приятель
- Untitled XXIV by Yunus Emre
- Владимир Вишневский – Вернувшись от дверей, присела
- An April Fool poem – Alfred Austin
- Doomes-Day: The Ninth Houre by William Alexander
- This Day, O Soul. by Walt Whitman
- Николай Карамзин – Посвящение к «Аглае»
- Robert Burns: Wilt Thou Be My Dearie?:
- The Call To Arms In Our Street by Winifred Mary Letts
- Владимир Высоцкий – Зарисовка о Ленинграде
- Poems, Potatoes by Sylvia Plath
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 All and Everything by Vladimir Mayakovsky
- Conversation with Comrade Lenin by Vladimir Mayakovsky
- Back Home by Vladimir Mayakovsky
- Past One O’Clock … by Vladimir Mayakovsky
- Our March by Vladimir Mayakovsky
- My Soviet Passport by Vladimir Mayakovsky
- Call To Account! by Vladimir Mayakovsky
- Attitude To A Miss by Vladimir Mayakovsky
- At the Top of My voice by Vladimir Mayakovsky
- What a beautiful world by Vladimir Marku
- Time by Vladimir Marku
- The Room The Light and Golden Dust by Vishnu J Mohan
- The Ghosts of past, the Angels of future by Vyshnav Shabu Nair
- Signals by Walid Saba
- September Rain by Vishü Rita Krocha
- Rain falling by Vladimir Marku
- Moonlight by Vita Sackville-West
- Night dyes its hair by Vladimir Marku
- Monday by Vishü Rita Krocha
- Love’s Paradox by Vishü Rita Krocha
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.