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:
- Holding my heart for YOU by Neelam Sinha
- Strada’s Nightingale by William Cowper
- Vacant Lot With Pokeweed poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Winner by Shel Silverstein
- Hudibras and Milton Reconciled by William Somervile
- A Wandering Knight by Rixa White
- Prisoner by Rabindranath Tagore
- Snapshots Of A Daughter In Law By Adrienne Rich
- Marks Of Disrespect by Graham Rowlands
- Николай Рубцов – Ветер всхлипывал, словно дитя
- An Epitaph On Mr. Fishborne The Great London Benefactor, And His Executor by William Strode
- Elegy
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Привет старому 1858-му году
- Epistle from Esopus to Maria by Robert Burns
- Валерий Брюсов – Из песен Мальдуна
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
- do you believe in always by Steve Troyanovich
- cascades of emptiness by Steve Troyanovich
- … and the moon was sleeping by Steve Troyanovich
- ambiguities of absence by Steve Troyanovich
- Who Would Of Knew…..About Your Concept!!! (July 10th) by Stevens Cadet
- The Future Promise Letter by Stevens Cadet
- Sometimes….Life’s A Beach by Stevens Cadet
- Passion Of My Heart by Stevens Cadet
- Nobody Told Me Of These Nights (A Poem For Melanie) by Stevens Cadet
- A Night With Passion! by Stevens Cadet
- Lyfe by Stevens Cadet
- Cupid’s Reign Of Terror (March 2012) by Stevens Cadet
- The Captain by Stevens Cadet
- Better Days by Stevens Cadet
- A Poem For Ashleigh (July) by Stevens Cadet
- A Pen Wrote The Funeral by Stevens Cadet
- A Morning Letter by Stevens Cadet
- The Pleasures Of Friendship by Stevie Smith
- The Jungle Husband by Stevie Smith
- Tenuous And Precarious by Stevie Smith
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.