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:
- Trial by Ruth Padel
- Стефан Малларме – Появление
- The Burning Crusade by Memphis Knight
- in praise of the moon by Raj Arumugam
- Владимир Вишневский – Пассажирский поезд
- Жан де Лафонтен – Амур и Безумие
- Зинаида Александрова – Песня моряков
- The Silkworm by William Cowper
- Ballade Of Autumn poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Николай Рубцов – Загородил мою дорогу
- Ярослав Смеляков – В защиту домино
- The Pet-Lamb by William Wordsworth
- Lines from Endymion poem – John Keats poems
- Morning Poem #43 by Wanda Phipps
- Thoughts by Ronald G. Auguste
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 – Вот яблоки так яблоки, на славу
- Николай Языков – Воспоминание
- Николай Языков – Водопад
- Николай Языков – Виленскому (Не робко пей, товарищ мой)
- Николай Языков – Весна
- Николай Языков – Вечер (Прохладен воздух был)
- Николай Языков – Валдайский узник
- Николай Языков – В. М. Княжевичу (Простите мне простое «ты»)
- Николай Языков – В альбом Ш. К. Фон-дер-Борг (Доверчивый, простосердечной)
- Николай Языков – В. А. Елагину (Светло блестит на глади неба ясной)
- Николай Языков – Услад
- Николай Языков – Тригорское
- Николай Языков – Странный случай
- Николай Языков – Стансы (В час, как деву молодую)
- Николай Языков – Сомнение
- Николай Языков – Сказка о пастухе и диком вепре
- Николай Языков – Сержант Сурмин
- Николай Языков – С. П. Шевыреву (Тебе хвала, и честь, и слава)
- Николай Языков – Романс (Угрюм стоит дремучий лес)
- Николай Языков – Романс (Красой небесною прекрасна)
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.