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:
- Федор Сологуб – Побеждайте радость
- The Battle of an National Icon by Norma Martiri
- The Wish to be Generous by Wendell Berry
- Robert Burns: Elegy On The Death Of Robert Ruisseaux:
- Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood by William Cullen Bryant
- A Song On A Sigh by William Strode
- Николай Языков – П. В. Киреевскому (Ты крепкий, праведный стоятель)
- Online Lover by Rainbow Reed
- Шекспир – Я лью потоки горьких слез – Сонет 44
- Георгий Иванов – Балтийское море дымилось
- Song of the Wise Children by Rudyard Kipling
- In Midas’ Country by Sylvia Plath
- Николай Языков – Стансы (В час, как деву молодую)
- Sonet 50 by William Alexander
- I too want to ESCAPE by Neelam Sinha
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: Extempore On Some Commemorations Of Thomson:
- Robert Burns: Epigram On Seeing Miss Fontenelle In A Favourite Character:
- Robert Burns: The Rights Of Woman: An Occasional Address. Spoken by Miss Fontenelle on her benefit night, November 26, 1792.
- Robert Burns: Auld Rob Morris:
- Robert Burns: Highland Mary:
- Robert Burns: My Wife’s A Winsome Wee Thing:
- Robert Burns: I’ll Meet Thee On The Lea Rig:
- Robert Burns: Fragment Of Song:
- Robert Burns: Saw Ye Bonie Lesley:
- Robert Burns: Love For Love:
- Robert Burns: Bessy And Her Spinnin’ Wheel:
- Robert Burns: The Country Lass:
- Robert Burns: The Deil’s Awa Wi’ The Exciseman:
- Robert Burns: The Deuks Dang O’er My Daddie:
- Robert Burns: O Can Ye Labour Lea?:
- Robert Burns: The Slave’s Lament:
- Robert Burns: Kellyburn Braes:
- Robert Burns: Lady Mary Ann:
- Robert Burns: Sic A Wife As Willie Had:
- Robert Burns: My Collier Laddie:
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.