Here, in her elbow chair, she sits
A soul alert, alive,
A poor old body shrunk and bent-
The queen-bee of the hive.
But hives of bees and hives of men
Obey their several laws;
No fiercely-loving filial throng
This mother-head adores.
This bringer of world-wealth, whereof
None may compute the worth,
Is possibly of no account
To anyone on earth.
Her cap and spectacles, that mean
Dim eyes and scanty hairs,
The humble symbols of her state-
The only crown she wears.
Lacking a kingdom and a court,
A relic of the past,
Almost a cumberer of the ground-
That is our queen at last.
But still not wholly without place,
Nor quite bereft of power;
A useful stopgap-a resource
In many a troubled hour.
She darns the stockings, keeps the house,
The nurseless infant tends,
While the young matrons and the men
Pursue their various ends-
Too keen-set on their great affairs,
Or little plays and pranks,
The things and people of their world,
To give her thought or thanks-
The children on whom all her thought
And time and love were spent
Through half a century of years!
Yet is she well content.
The schooling of those fiery years,
It has not been for nought;
A large philosophy of life
Has self-less service taught.
The outlook from the heights attained
By climbings sore and slow
Discovers worlds of wisdom, hid
From clearest eyes below.
So calmly, in her elbow chair,
Forgotten and alone,
She knits and dreams, and sometimes sighs
But never makes a moan.
Still dwelling with her brood unseen-
Ghosts of a bygone day-
The precious daughter in her grave,
The dear son gone astray-
And others, to whom once she stood
As only light and law,
The near and living, and yet lost,
That need her love no more.
Watching their joyous setting forth
To mingle with their kind,
With scarce a pang, with ne’er a grudge,
At being left behind.
“Let them be young, as I was young,
And happy while they may” . . . .
A dog that waits the night in peace
Since it has had its day.
A few random poems:
- Story By Lalla Ji The Priest
- Beautiful Women. by Walt Whitman
- Федор Сваровский – Путешественники во времени 7
- Robert Burns: O Bonie Was Yon Rosy Brier:
- Adieu to Belshanny by William Allingham
- The Ships Are Made Ready In Silence by W. S. Merwin
- Николай Гумилев – За часом час бежит и падает во тьму
- A Watch Sent Home To Mrs. Eliz: King, Wrapt In Theis Verses by William Strode
- lovers in nature by Raj Arumugam
- Lady Freedom Among Us by Rita Dove
- Near The Wall Of A House by Yehuda Amichai
- Gratitude, Addressed To Lady Hesketh by William Cowper
- In The Foam. by Sidney Lanier
- A Minor Bird by Robert Frost
- To the Same poem – John Milton poems
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.