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.
A few random poems:
- Amarene by Rina Ferrarelli
- And the days are not full enough poem – Ezra Pound poems
- The Morning Of The Day Appointed For A General Thanksgiving. January 18, 1816 by William Wordsworth
- Юнна Мориц – О жизни, о жизни
- Михаил Кузмин – В густом лесу мы дождь пережидали
- Lord when the wise men came from farr by Sidney Godolphin
- Robert Burns: Verses To Clarinda: Sent with a Pair of Wine-Glasses.
- The Details Are poem – Zhivka Baltadzhieva poems | Poetry Monster
- The Fruit Garden Path poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Огюст Барбье – Роберт Эммет
- A Cat Perched on the Railing poem – Amy Cavanaugh poems | Poems and Poetry
- Омар Хайям – И теперь живу под гнетом страха
- At the Lake Pavilion by Wang Wei
- We Are To Play The Game Of Death by Rabindranath Tagore
- Олег Бундур – В зоологическом музее
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
- Николай Языков – Е. А. Тимашевой (Молодая ученица)
- Николай Языков – Е. А. Свербеевой (Мысль неразгульного поэта)
- Николай Языков – Две картины
- Николай Языков – Дума (Одну минуту, много две)
- Николай Языков – Дом сумасшедших в Дерпте
- Николай Языков – Девятое мая
- Николай Языков – Дева ночи
- Николай Языков – Давным-давно люблю я страстно
- Николай Языков – Д. Н. Свербееву (Во имя Руси, милый брат)
- Николай Языков – Чувствительное путешествие в Ревель
- Николай Языков – Благодарю вас за цветы
- Николай Языков – Баян к русскому воину
- Николай Языков – Ау
- Николай Языков – Альпийская песня
- Николай Языков – Аделаиде (Я твой, я твой, Аделаида)
- Николай Языков – А. В. Тихвинскому (Как знать, куда моя дорога)
- Николай Языков – А. В. Киреевой (Тогда как сердцем мы лелеем)
- Николай Языков – А. С. Дириной
- Николай Языков – А. Н. Вульфу (Теперь я в Камби, милый мой)
- Николай Языков – А. Н. Вульфу (Нe называй меня поэтом)
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

Violet Nicolson ( 1865 – 1904); otherwise known as Adela Florence Nicolson (née Cory), was an English poetess who wrote under the pseudonym of Laurence Hope, however she became known as Violet Nicolson. In the early 1900s, she became a best-selling author. She committed suicide and is buried in Madras, now Chennai, India.