Golden Eyes

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.

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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 

• Sonnet 133: Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 132: Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 131: Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 130: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 12: When I do count the clock that tells the time by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 129: Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• The Eolian Harp by Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Fledermaus
• Sonnet 32: If thou survive my well-contented day by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 31: Thy bosom is endearèd with all hearts by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 2: When forty winters shall besiege thy brow by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 29: When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 28: How can I then return in happy plight by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 27: Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 26: Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 25: Let those who are in favour with their stars by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 24: Mine eye hath played the painter and hath stelled by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 23: As an unperfect actor on the stage by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 22: My glass shall not persuade me I am old by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 21: So is it not with me as with that muse by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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.

 

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