Malaria

He lurks among the reeds, beside the marsh,

Red oleanders twisted in His hair,

His eyes are haggard and His lips are harsh,

Upon His breast the bones show gaunt and bare.

The green and stagnant waters lick His feet,

And from their filmy, iridescent scum

Clouds of mosquitoes, gauzy in the heat,

Rise with His gifts: Death and Delirium.

His messengers: They bear the deadly taint

On spangled wings aloft and far away,

Making thin music, strident and yet faint,

From golden eve to silver break of day.

The baffled sleeper hears th’ incessant whine

Through his tormented dreams, and finds no rest

The thirsty insects use his blood for wine,

Probe his blue veins and pasture on his breast.

While far away He in the marshes lies,

Staining the stagnant water with His breath,

An endless hunger burning in His eyes,

A famine unassuaged, whose food is Death.

He hides among the ghostly mists that float

Over the water, weird and white and chill,

And peasants, passing in their laden boat,

Shiver and feel a sense of coming ill.

A thousand burn and die; He takes no heed,

Their bones, unburied, strewn upon the plain,

Only increase the frenzy of His greed

To add more victims to th’ already slain.

He loves the haggard frame, the shattered mind,

Gloats with delight upon the glazing eye,

Yet, in one thing, His cruelty is kind,

He sends them lovely dreams before they die;

Dreams that bestow on them their heart’s desire,

Visions that find them mad, and leave them blest,

To sink, forgetful of the fever’s fire,

Softly, as in a lover’s arms, to rest.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random 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 

• Stepping Westward by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Star-Gazers by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Stanzas by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Stanzas Written In My Pocket Copy Of Thomson’s “Castle Of Indolence” by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Spanish Guerillas by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Sonnet: On seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams weep at a tale of distress by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Sonnet: “It is not to be thought of” by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Song Of The Wandering Jew by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Song Of The Spinning Wheel by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Simon Lee: The Old Huntsman by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Siege Of Vienna Raised By Jihn Sobieski by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• She Was A Phantom Of Delight by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• September, 1819 by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• September 1815 by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• September 1, 1802 by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Scorn Not The Sonnet by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Say, What Is Honour?–‘Tis The Finest Sense by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Ruth by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Rural Architecture by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works