“He asked life of thee, and thou gavest him a long life, even for ever and ever.”
Life-length of days-the time to work and strive
In his Lord’s vineyard; to bring heavenly light
Into the drear, dark places of the earth,
And make them fair and fruitful in His sight.
Life-it seem’d all so bright and beautiful once!
It lay spread out before his kindling eyes,
A land of sunny hills, in white mist veil’d,
Of sweet green valleys under summer skies.
Such tender light and tender shadows there!
No dazzling blaze, no savage blots of gloom,
No keen-cut outline of the barren cliff,
No glaring waste,-but all one gentle bloom
Of happy, innocent hope,-a morning tint
Of pearly grey and gold, with just a shade
Of bright cloud-colour, giving life to it,-
He saw not then the havoc death had made.
But soon the white mist melted in the heat
Of noonday, and the wasted fields lay bare-
Vineyard of Eden-like a bright face, scarred
With sin and shame and weariness and care.
And his vague aspiration took a shape.
“Grant me, dear Lord, if it seem good to Thee,
To labour here, with manhood’s utter strength,-
O Lord, good Lord, intrust this work to me!
“Let me have time to toil-a long, long day-
To dig and delve and root out wasteful weeds,
To cut down briars and thorns, and help to plough
Furrows where angels may sow heavenly seeds.
“Give me to foster, with my faith and love,
Frail, early flowers, that fear to droop and fade!
Father, I will not shrink for bleeding hands,
For heat nor cold-I do not feel afraid!”
His voice was heard-his will accepted. God
Gave deep and true fulfilment to his prayer,-
Life-life eternal, which should nevermore
The taint of death, or sin, or sorrow bear!
Oh pray, ye blind ones, as the beggar pray’d
When He of Nazareth pass’d by! Oh pray
With simple faith and worship,-fear ye not
God’s gracious ear will deafly turn away.
Ye know He bids us to tell out our wants,
Knowing them all; give up to Him your will,
And trust Him-trust Him. In his wondrous love
He deigns the lowliest longing to fulfil.
Ay, and with that fulfilment which we ne’er
Shall grasp or fathom-till we come to see
Our strange, mysterious human life unveil’d
In the clear daylight of eternity.
The beggar ask’d for sight-Christ answer’d him,
For his faith’s sake, and gave him sight indeed.
Just so his silent hands and darken’d eyes
Were lifted once, for grace of “life” to plead.
And God fulfilled his prayer as utterly!
He gave him life-the life of saints above,
Beyond all earthly dreaming sweet and glad-
An endless life in His eternal love!
A few random poems:
- Владимир Высоцкий – Татуировка
- By The Fire
- An Address to Shakespeare by William Topaz McGonagall
- Ольга Берггольц – Из “Писем с дороги”
- Robert Burns: To John Kennedy, Dumfries House:
- Savour Your Life by Ronald G. Auguste
- Niobe in Distress by Phillis Wheatley
- On A Similar Character (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Robert Burns: O That’s The Lassie O’ My Heart :
- My Mother’s Grief
- Vision by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Comparison. Addressed To A Young Lady by William Cowper
- Icicles round a Tree in Dumfriesshire by Ruth Padel
- Elegie IV: On The Death of Prince Henrie by William Alexander
- At San Giovanni Del Lago poem – Alfred Austin
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
- Spring by Ramesh Anand
- Remember the Tick by RD McManes
- re_word by RD McManes
- Rain by Reena Ribalow
- Carnal Knowledge by Rebecca Elson
- We Astronomers by Rebecca Elson
- This Morning by Raymond Carver
- Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year by Raymond Carver
- No Chance To A New Life by Rashmi Sreekumar
- Live for the moment, be in the present by Ramesh V Deshpande
- Late Fragment by Raymond Carver
- Jobless by Rashmi
- I’m not listening by Rashmi Sreekumar
- Flutter by Rashmi Sreekumar
- Fear by Raymond Carver
- Drinking While Driving by Raymond Carver
- Circulation by Raymond Carver
- Butterfly by Ramesh Anand
- Bobber by Raymond Carver
- Autumn by Ramesh Anand
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
Ada Cambridge (1844 – 1926), also known as Ada Cross, was an English-born Australian author and poetess. She wrote more than 25 works of fiction, three volumes of poetry and two autobiographical works.