Is it a will-o’-the-wisp, or is dawn breaking,
That our horizon wears so strange a hue?
Is it but one more dream, or are we waking
To find that dreams, at last, are coming true?
Aye, surely, in that golden glimmer streaking
The cloudy sky-line of the life of man
We see the blessed day he has been seeking
In all directions since the world began.
Sign to each struggling and exhausted nation
Of hope fulfilled, redemption and release;
Sign of the end of needless tribulation,
And the beginning of the reign of Peace.
Country with country, brother with his brother,
Content to share, and not to grab and steal;
Ceasing the wild-beast battle, each with other,
To work in concert for the common weal.
No class-strife more, neighbour with differing neighbour;
No waste or want, to breed the plague or crime;
No soul-debasing pomp and sordid labour,
No wars, no famines, in the coming time!
But swords of slaughter-valour and brains and money-
Turned into ploughshares for the lands redeemed,
To fill men’s homes, as full as hives of honey,
With wealth unknown and happiness undreamed.
Great Art no more the plaything of the idle,
But nurse and minister to every need;
Nature no longer cowed with bit and bridle;
Conscience enfranchised and Religion freed.
All round our darksome isle the tide encroaches,
Distant and dim as yet, but spreading fast.
The reign of Love and Liberty approaches!
The heirs are coming to their own at last!
Hark! What was that? The vanquished devil howling,
With guns and bombs, for brother devil’s blood?
The primal savage out again-befouling
All this fair promise with his primal mud?
Alas! So soon to see our lovely morning
Back in the hopeless night whence it arose,
And have no time to wait another dawning!
O Lord, how long-how long . . . . . . . .
A few random poems:
- Iva’s Pantoum by Marilyn Hacker
- Яков Полонский – Цветок
- Falling Action by Ruth Madievsky
- Федор Сологуб – Светлый пир
- Иосиф Бродский – Буров тракторист
- AUTUMN GRAPES by Önder Kurt
- Виталий Сивяков – Крещенье
- Robert Burns: Epigram Addressed To An Artist:
- A Father Out, An’ Mother Hwome by William Barnes
- Virtuous Love by Rajendra Ojha
- Untitled XXV by Yunus Emre
- Heccar and Gaira by Thomas Chatterton
- The Tree and the Marble by Mike Yuan
- Not Youth Pertains to Me. by Walt Whitman
- Валерий Брюсов – Гнутся высокие лотосы
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
- Essay on Man poem – Alexander Pope
- Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot poem – Alexander Pope
- Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle IV, To Richard Boyle, poem – Alexander Pope
- Epistle II: To A Lady (Of the Characters of Women) poem – Alexander Pope
- Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness poem – Alexander Pope
- Eloisa to Abelard poem – Alexander Pope
- Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady poem – Alexander Pope
- Couplets on Wit poem – Alexander Pope
- Argus poem – Alexander Pope
- An Essay on Man in Four Epistles: Epistle 1 poem – Alexander Pope
- An Essay On Criticism poem – Alexander Pope
- The Rape of the Lock: Canto 4 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Rape of the Lock: Canto 3 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Rape of the Lock: Canto 2 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Rape of the Lock: Canto 1 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Rape of the Lock poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Iliad: Book VI (excerpt) poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Dying Christian to His Soul poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Three Gentle Shepherds poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Temple of Fame poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
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.