Where is the promise of my years;
Once written on my brow?
Ere errors, agonies and fears
Brought with them all that speaks in tears,
Ere I had sunk beneath my peers;
Where sleeps that promise now?
Naught lingers to redeem those hours,
Still, still to memory sweet!
The flowers that bloomed in sunny bowers
Are withered all; and Evil towers
Supreme above her sister powers
Of Sorrow and Deceit.
I look along the columned years,
And see Life’s riven fane,
Just where it fell, amid the jeers
Of scornful lips, whose mocking sneers,
For ever hiss within mine ears
To break the sleep of pain.
I can but own my life is vain
A desert void of peace;
I missed the goal I sought to gain,
I missed the measure of the strain
That lulls Fame’s fever in the brain,
And bids Earth’s tumult cease.
Myself! alas for theme so poor
A theme but rich in Fear;
I stand a wreck on Error’s shore,
A spectre not within the door,
A houseless shadow evermore,
An exile lingering here.
A few random poems:
- Alone
- At A Vacation Exercise In The Colledge, Part Latin, Part English. The Latin Speeches Ended, The English Thus Began poem – John Milton poems
- Prairie States, The. by Walt Whitman
- inscription on Mr. Syme’s crystal goblet by Robert Burns
- Portrait d’Une Femme poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Stray Colors by Satish Verma
- Motel Pool by P. K. Page
- Владимир Высоцкий – Она была в Париже
- The New World by Philip Levine
- Николай Гумилев – Куранты любви
- Song—A Man’s a Man for a’ that by Robert Burns
- Robert Burns: My Bonie Bell:
- Grand Slam Night poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Today by Siegfried Sassoon
- Astrophel and Stella: XV by Sir Philip Sidney
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
- Robert Burns: Epistle To J. Lapraik, An Old Scottish Bard:
- Robert Burns: Death and Doctor Hornbook : A True Story
- Robert Burns: Tarbolton Lasses, The:
- Robert Burns: Epitaph On Holy Willie:
- Robert Burns: Holy Willie’s Prayer: “And send the godly in a pet to pray.” – Pope.
- Robert Burns: Epistle To Davie, A Brother Poet:
- Robert Burns: The Twa Herds; Or, The Holy Tulyie: An Unco Mournfu’ Tale
- Robert Burns: Man Was Made To Mourn: A Dirge:
- Robert Burns: Lines On The Author’s Death: Written With The Supposed View Of Being Handed To Rankine After The Poet’s Interment
- Robert Burns: Epitaph On John Rankine:
- Robert Burns: On Tam The Chapman:
- Robert Burns: Another [Epigram On The Said Occasion… On A Henpecked Country Squire]:
- Robert Burns: Epigram On The Said Occasion [On A Henpecked Country Squire]:
- Robert Burns: Tragic Fragment:
- Robert Burns: On A Henpecked Country Squire:
- Robert Burns: On A Noisy Polemic:
- Robert Burns: The Belles Of Mauchline:
- Robert Burns: My Girl She’s Airy: Fragment
- Robert Burns: The Mauchline Lady: Fragment
- Robert Burns: O Leave Novels:
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

Adah Isaacs Menken (1835 – 1868) was an American actress and a performer, who painted painter and wrote a number of poems (31 published so far). She was supposedly the highest earning actress of her time. She was best known for her performance in the hippodrama Mazeppa (with libretto based on Pushkin’s work), it is said that the climax of the spectacle featured her apparently nude and riding a horse on stage. After great success for a few years with the play in New York and San Francisco, she appeared in a production in London and Paris, from 1864 to 1866. She was a friend of Alexander Dumas. Adah Menken died in Paris at the age of 33