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:
- English Poetry. Charles Lockhart. Epistle to a Friend, with a Copy of Burns’s Letters. Чарльз Локкарт. Послание другу при возвращении ему томиков стихов Бернса
- Main to piya say naina lada aayi ray poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Dica by Sappho
- The Ballad of East and West by Rudyard Kipling
- A Tale of Starvation poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Desperation by Vishü Rita Krocha
- Омар Хайям – Если есть у тебя для жилья закуток
- Юнна Мориц – Смелый гусь
- Two sparrows and my heart by Nizar Sartawi
- Ask Me No More by Thomas Carew
- A Soldier’s Reprieve by William Topaz McGonagall
- A Thought From Propertius by William Butler Yeats
- To A Cricket by Michael McGovern
- Олег Бундур – Я сильнее
- The Walk by Noel Angelo Hurley
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
- Olney Hymn 26: On Opening A Place For Social Prayer by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 24: Prayer For Children by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 23: Pleading For And With Youth by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 22: Prayer For A Blessing In The Young by William Cowper
- Lines Addressed To Dr. Darwin, Author Of The ‘Botanic Garden.’ by William Cowper
- Joy In Martyrdom by William Cowper
- Invitation To The Redbreast by William Cowper
- Inscription For The Tomb Of Mr. Hamilton by William Cowper
- Inscription For A Stone Erected At The Sowing Of A Grove Of Oaks At Chillington, Anno 1791 by William Cowper
- Inscription For A Stone Erected At The Sowing Of A Grove Of Oaks At Chillington, Anno 1790 by William Cowper
- Inscription For A Moss-House In The Shrubbery At Weston by William Cowper
- Inscription For A Hermitage In The Author’s Garden by William Cowper
- In Seditionem Horrendam, Corruptelis Gallicus Ut Fertue, Londini Nuper Exortam by William Cowper
- In Memory Of The Late John Thornton, Esq. by William Cowper
- In A Letter To C. P. Esq. In Imitation Of Shakspeare by William Cowper
- In A Letter To C. P. Esq. Ill With The Rheumatism by William Cowper
- Hymn For The Use Of The Sunday School At Olney by William Cowper
- Hope, Like The Short-lived Ray That Gleams Awhile by William Cowper
- Gratitude And Love To God by William Cowper
- Gratitude, Addressed To Lady Hesketh by William Cowper
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.