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:
- Come Skating by Shel Silverstein
- Riden Hwome At Night by William Barnes
- Нина Воронель – Аэродром
- Владимир Бенедиктов – На пятидесятилетний юбилей Крылова
- Robert Burns: The Poet’s Reply To The Threat Of A Censorious Critic: My imprudent lines were answered, very petulantly, by somebody, I believe, a Rev. Mr. Hamilton. In a MS., where I met the answer, I wrote below:-
- A Tale of Christmas Eve by William Topaz McGonagall
- To England poem – Alfred Austin
- Alone In The Woods by Stevie Smith
- How cruel are the parents by Robert Burns
- Sonnet On Sitting Down To Read King Lear Once Again poem – John Keats poems
- Олег Сердобольский – Алмазная снежинка
- Федор Сологуб – Водой спокойной отражены
- In A Letter To C. P. Esq. In Imitation Of Shakspeare by William Cowper
- I, or Someone Like Me by Marvin Bell
- My Invisible Valentine by Nin Andrews
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
- A Zong Of Harvest Hwome by William Barnes
- A Wife A-Praïs’d by William Barnes
- A-Haulen O’ The Corn by William Barnes
- A Good Father by William Barnes
- A Bit O’ Fun by William Barnes
- Invictus by William Ernest Henley
- Barmaid by William Ernest Henley
- Ballade of Dead Actors by William Ernest Henley
- Youth And Beauty by William Carlos Williams
- Heel & Toe To The End by William Carlos Williams
- from Book I, Paterson by William Carlos Williams
- Flowers By The Sea by William Carlos Williams
- Dedication For A Plot Of Ground by William Carlos Williams
- Danse Russe by William Carlos Williams
- Complete Destruction by William Carlos Williams
- Complaint by William Carlos Williams
- Children’s Games by William Carlos Williams
- Blizzard by William Carlos Williams
- Berket And The Stars by William Carlos Williams
- Aux Imagistes by William Carlos Williams
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