Oh Amber Eyes, oh Golden Eyes!
Oh Eyes so softly gay!
Wherein swift fancies fall and rise,
Grow dark and fade away.
Eyes like a little limpid pool
That holds a sunset sky,
While on its surface, calm and cool,
Blue water lilies lie.
Oh Tender Eyes, oh Wistful Eyes,
You smiled on me one day,
And all my life, in glad surprise,
Leapt up and pleaded “Stay!”
Alas, oh cruel, starlike eyes,
So grave and yet so gay,
You went to lighten other skies,
Smiled once and passed away.
Oh, you whom I name “Golden Eyes,”
Perhaps I used to know
Your beauty under other skies
In lives lived long ago.
Perhaps I rowed with galley slaves,
Whose labour never ceased,
To bring across Phoenician waves
Your treasure from the East.
Maybe you were an Emperor then
And I a favourite slave;
Some youth, whom from the lions’ den
You vainly tried to save!
Maybe I reigned, a mighty King,
The early nations knew,
And you were some slight captive thing,
Some maiden whom I slew.
Perhaps, adrift on desert shores
Beside some shipwrecked prow,
I gladly gave my life for yours.
Would I might give it now!
Or on some sacrificial stone
Strange Gods we satisfied,
Perhaps you stooped and left a throne
To kiss me ere I died.
Perhaps, still further back than this,
In times ere men were men,
You granted me a moment’s bliss
In some dark desert den,
When, with your amber eyes alight
With iridescent flame,
And fierce desire for love’s delight,
Towards my lair you came
Ah laughing, ever-brilliant eyes,
These things men may not know,
But something in your radiance lies,
That, centuries ago,
Lit up my life in one wild blaze
Of infinite desire
To revel in your golden rays,
Or in your light expire.
If this, oh Strange Ringed Eyes, be true,
That through all changing lives
This longing love I have for you
Eternally survives,
May I not sometimes dare to dream
In some far time to be
Your softly golden eyes may gleam
Responsively on me?
Ah gentle, subtly changing eyes,
You smiled on me one day,
And all my life in glad surprise
Leaped up, imploring “Stay!”
Alas, alas, oh Golden Eyes,
So cruel and so gay,
You went to shine in other skies,
Smiled once and passed away.
A few random poems:
- Melinda Mae by Shel Silverstein
- Николай Гумилев – Никогда не сделаю я так
- Олег Григорьев – На боку кобура болталась
- Николай Языков – Вечер (Прохладен воздух был)
- Какой чудесный, маленький комочек
- Алексей Жемчужников – Себе
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Бездна
- Remorse For Intemperate Speech by William Butler Yeats
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. Home. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- Владимир Маяковский – Нам бы только вот это воскресити… (РОСТА)
- Владимир Набоков – Ut pictura poesis
- Exiles by Marilyn Hacker
- Vacant Lot With Pokeweed poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Gyres by William Butler Yeats
- Степан Щипачев – За селом синел далекий лес
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
- Notes for Canto CXX poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Nicotine poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Meditatio poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Medallion poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Masks poem – Ezra Pound poems
- L’Art poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Lament of the Frontier Guard poem – Ezra Pound poems
- La Regina Avrillouse poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Ione, Dead the Long Year poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Invern poem – Ezra Pound poems
- In the Old Age of the Soul poem – Ezra Pound poems
- In Tempore Senectutis poem – Ezra Pound poems
- In A Station Of The Metro poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Hugh Selwyn Mauberly (Part I) poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Historion poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Grace Before Song poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Further Instructions poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Francesca poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Fan-Piece, For Her Imperial Lord poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Ezra on the Strike poem – Ezra Pound poems
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

Violet Nicolson ( 1865 – 1904); otherwise known as Adela Florence Nicolson (née Cory), was an English poetess who wrote under the pseudonym of Laurence Hope, however she became known as Violet Nicolson. In the early 1900s, she became a best-selling author. She committed suicide and is buried in Madras, now Chennai, India.