“He asked life of thee, and thou gavest him a long life, even for ever and ever.”
Life-length of days-the time to work and strive
In his Lord’s vineyard; to bring heavenly light
Into the drear, dark places of the earth,
And make them fair and fruitful in His sight.
Life-it seem’d all so bright and beautiful once!
It lay spread out before his kindling eyes,
A land of sunny hills, in white mist veil’d,
Of sweet green valleys under summer skies.
Such tender light and tender shadows there!
No dazzling blaze, no savage blots of gloom,
No keen-cut outline of the barren cliff,
No glaring waste,-but all one gentle bloom
Of happy, innocent hope,-a morning tint
Of pearly grey and gold, with just a shade
Of bright cloud-colour, giving life to it,-
He saw not then the havoc death had made.
But soon the white mist melted in the heat
Of noonday, and the wasted fields lay bare-
Vineyard of Eden-like a bright face, scarred
With sin and shame and weariness and care.
And his vague aspiration took a shape.
“Grant me, dear Lord, if it seem good to Thee,
To labour here, with manhood’s utter strength,-
O Lord, good Lord, intrust this work to me!
“Let me have time to toil-a long, long day-
To dig and delve and root out wasteful weeds,
To cut down briars and thorns, and help to plough
Furrows where angels may sow heavenly seeds.
“Give me to foster, with my faith and love,
Frail, early flowers, that fear to droop and fade!
Father, I will not shrink for bleeding hands,
For heat nor cold-I do not feel afraid!”
His voice was heard-his will accepted. God
Gave deep and true fulfilment to his prayer,-
Life-life eternal, which should nevermore
The taint of death, or sin, or sorrow bear!
Oh pray, ye blind ones, as the beggar pray’d
When He of Nazareth pass’d by! Oh pray
With simple faith and worship,-fear ye not
God’s gracious ear will deafly turn away.
Ye know He bids us to tell out our wants,
Knowing them all; give up to Him your will,
And trust Him-trust Him. In his wondrous love
He deigns the lowliest longing to fulfil.
Ay, and with that fulfilment which we ne’er
Shall grasp or fathom-till we come to see
Our strange, mysterious human life unveil’d
In the clear daylight of eternity.
The beggar ask’d for sight-Christ answer’d him,
For his faith’s sake, and gave him sight indeed.
Just so his silent hands and darken’d eyes
Were lifted once, for grace of “life” to plead.
And God fulfilled his prayer as utterly!
He gave him life-the life of saints above,
Beyond all earthly dreaming sweet and glad-
An endless life in His eternal love!
A few random poems:
- Me, The Wind and the Old Shadow by Walter William Safar
- The Routine Things Around The House by Stephen Dunn
- When I peruse the Conquer’d Fame. by Walt Whitman
- Notebook Of A Return To The Native Land
- Paris, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: Paris by T. Wignesan.
- The Metropolitan Tower by Sara Teasdale
- Two Campers In Cloud Country by Sylvia Plath
- Ольга Берггольц – Старая гвардия
- Robert Burns: Epitaph For Robert Aiken, Esq.:
- He is more than a hero by Sappho
- Владимир Маяковский – В 12 часов по ночам
- Walls at Drogheda by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
- Каждый день и каждый миг судьбу благодарю
- Hora Stellatrix poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Эмиль Верхарн – Звонарь
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
- The Beginning by Rabindranath Tagore
- The Astronomer by Rabindranath Tagore
- Religious Obsession — translation from Dharmamoha by Rabindranath Tagore
- Poems On Time by Rabindranath Tagore
- Poems On Man by Rabindranath Tagore
- Poems On Love by Rabindranath Tagore
- Poems On Life by Rabindranath Tagore
- Poems On Beauty by Rabindranath Tagore
- One Day In Spring…. by Rabindranath Tagore
- On The Nature Of Love by Rabindranath Tagore
- My Friend, Come In These Rains — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Lover’s Gifts LVI: The Evening Was Lonely by Rabindranath Tagore
- Lord Of My Life by Rabindranath Tagore
- Lamp Of Love by Rabindranath Tagore
- Kinu Goala’s Alley – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
- In The Dusky Path Of A Dream by Rabindranath Tagore
- In The Country – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
- I Found A Few Old Letters by Rabindranath Tagore
- I Cast My Net Into The Sea by Rabindranath Tagore
- Gift Of The Great – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
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.