A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)
Oft when sweet music undulated round,
Like the full moon out of a perfumed sea
Thine image from the waves of blissful sound
Rose and thy sudden light illumined me.
And in the country, leaf and flower and air
Would alter and the eternal shape emerge;
Because they spoke of thee the fields seemed fair,
And Joy to wait at the horizon’s verge.
The little cloud-gaps in the east that filled
Gray afternoons with bits of tenderest blue
Were windows in a palace pearly-silled
That thy voluptuous traits came glimmering through.
And in the city, dominant desire
For which men toil within its prison-bars,
I watched thy white feet moving in the mire
And thy white forehead hid among the stars.
Mystical, feminine, provoking, nude,
Radiant there with rosy arms outspread,
Sum of fulfillment, sovereign attitude,
Sensual with laughing lips and thrown-back head,
Draped in the rainbow on the summer hills,
Hidden in sea-mist down the hot coast-line,
Couched on the clouds that fiery sunset fills,
Blessed, remote, impersonal, divine;
The gold all color and grace are folded o’er,
The warmth all beauty and tenderness embower, —
Thou quiverest at Nature’s perfumed core,
The pistil of a myriad-petalled flower.
Round thee revolves, illimitably wide,
The world’s desire, as stars around their pole.
Round thee all earthly loveliness beside
Is but the radiate, infinite aureole.
Thou art the poem on the cosmic page —
In rubric written on its golden ground —
That Nature paints her flowers and foliage
And rich-illumined commentary round.
Thou art the rose that the world’s smiles and tears
Hover about like butterflies and bees.
Thou art the theme the music of the spheres
Echoes in endless, variant harmonies.
Thou art the idol in the altar-niche
Faced by Love’s congregated worshippers,
Thou art the holy sacrament round which
The vast cathedral is the universe.
Thou art the secret in the crystal where,
For the last light upon the mystery Man,
In his lone tower and ultimate despair,
Searched the gray-bearded Zoroastrian.
And soft and warm as in the magic sphere,
Deep-orbed as in its erubescent fire,
So in my heart thine image would appear,
Curled round with the red flames of my desire.
A few random poems:
- Robert Burns: Halloween: The following poem will, by many readers, be well enough understood; but for the sake of those who are unacquainted with the manners and traditions of the country where the scene is cast, notes are added to give some account of the principal charms and spells of that night, so big with prophecy to the peasantry in the west of Scotland. The passion of prying into futurity makes a striking part of the history of human nature in its rude state, in all ages and nations; and it may be some entertainment to a philosophic mind, if any such honour the author with a perusal, to see the remains of it among the more unenlightened in our own.-R.B.
- Владимир Степанов – Утёнок (Буква У)
- Greengrocer by Robert McNamara
- Snow by Walter de la Mare
- Green Rock, Winthrop Bay by Sylvia Plath
- Ritual by Tala Bar
- The Declaration of London by Rudyard Kipling
- To a Lady with an Unruly and Ill-mannered Dog Who Bit several Persons of Importance by Sir Walter Raleigh
- On One Ignorant And Arrogant (Translated From Owen) by William Cowper
- Как на Масляной неделе
- Criss-Cross Acrostic*: Ai My Eye ! by T. Wignesan
- Two Lacquer Prints poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sea of lavender ( 4 pre-summer poems ) by Vasil Slavov
- Epistle To John Hamilton Reynolds poem – John Keats poems
- Вера Павлова – Трогающему грудь
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
- On A Goldfinch, Starved To Death In His Cage by William Cowper
- On A Fowler, By Isidorus by William Cowper
- On A Battered Beauty (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On A Bath, By Plato by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 9: The Contrite Heart by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 7: Vanity of the World by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 68: Light Shining Out Of Darkness by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 67: Longing To Be With Christ by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 66: I Will Praise The Lord At All Times by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 64: Praise For Faith by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 63: Not Of Works by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 61: The Narrow Way by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 60: Abuse Of The Gospel by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 59: A Living And A Dead Faith by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 57: The New Convert by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 56: Hatred Of Sin by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 55: The Heart Healed And Changed By Mercy by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 54: Love Constraining To Obedience by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 53: My Soul Thirsteth For God by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 52: For The Poor 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
Alan Seeger (1888-1916) was an American war poet who fought and died in World War I during the Battle of the Somme, serving in the French Foreign Legion. Seeger was the brother of Charles Seeger, a noted American pacifist and musicologist and the uncle of folk musician, Pete Seeger.