The sins of Youth are hardly sins,
So frank they are and free.
‘T is but when Middle-age begins
We need morality.
Ah, pause and weigh this bitter truth:
That Middle-age, grown cold,
No comprehension has of Youth,
No pity for the Old.
Youth, with his half-divine mistakes,
She never can forgive,
So much she hates his charm which makes
Worth while the life we live.
She scorns Old Age, whose tolerance
And calm, well-balanced mind
(Knowing how crime is born of chance)
Can pardon all mankind.
Yet she, alas! has all the power
Of strength and place and gold,
Man’s every act, through every hour,
Is by her laws controlled.
All things she grasps with sordid hands
And weighs in tarnished scales.
She neither feels, nor understands,
And yet her will prevails!
Cold-blooded vice and careful sin,
Gold-lust, blind selfishness,–
The shortest, cheapest way to win
Some, worse than cheap, success.
Such are her attributes and aims,
Yet meekly we obey,
While she to guide and order claims
All issues of the day.
You seek for honour, friendship, truth?
Let Middle-age be banned!
Go, for warm-hearted acts, to Youth;
To Age,–to understand!

A few random poems:
- Melville And Coghill – The Place Of The Little Hand poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Lit Instructor by William Stafford
- Ellen Irwin Or The Braes Of Kirtle by William Wordsworth
- Яков Полонский – На закате
- Николай Глазков – Чтоб улыбалось счастье
- Adelgitha by Thomas Campbell
- Desire for You by Seema Gupta
- In Praise of Songs that Die by Vachel Lindsay
- My angel’s face by Vinko Kalinić
- Xai Kou1
- Владимир Маяковский – Рабочий при капитализме работал из-под палки… (РОСТА №666)
- The Flight by Sara Teasdale
- Hint From The Mountains For Certain Political Pretenders by William Wordsworth
- Who is at my door? by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- February 23
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
- Dancing by Robert Hass
- Children Are Like Water by Robert Lloyd Jaffe
- Cascade by Robert Desnos
- Between The Wars by Robert Hass
- What We Leave Behind by Robert Saltzman
- Water by Robert Lowell
- Waking in the Blue by Robert Lowell
- The Wound by Robert McNamara
- The Withdrawal by Robert Lowell
- The Ruins Of Time by Robert Lowell
- The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket by Robert Lowell
- The Drunken Fisherman by Robert Lowell
- Skunk Hour by Robert Lowell
- Promise Me Rain Retold by Roberto Cocina
- San Francisco Night Windows by Robert Penn Warren
- True Love by Robert Penn Warren
- Tell Me a Story by Robert Penn Warren
- Mortal Limit by Robert Penn Warren
- Evening Hawk by Robert Penn Warren
- A Way to Love God by Robert Penn Warren
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.