Mirage

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 . . . . . . . .

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 

• Hail, Zaragoza! If With Unwet eye by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Hail, Twilight, Sovereign Of One Peaceful Hour by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Guilt And Sorrow, Or, Incidents Upon Salisbury Plain by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Great Men Have Been Among Us by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Goody Blake And Harry Gill by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Gipsies by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• George and Sarah Green by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• From The Italian Of Michael Angelo by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• From The Dark Chambers Of Dejection Freed by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• From The Cuckoo And The Nightingale by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Foresight by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Fidelity by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Feelings Of The Tyrolese by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Feelings Of A Noble Biscayan At One Of Those Funerals by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Feelings of A French Royalist, On The Disinterment Of The Remains Of The Duke D’Enghien by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Extract From The Conclusion Of A Poem Composed In Anticipation Of Leaving School by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Expostulation and Reply by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Even As A Dragon’s Eye That Feels The Stress by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Epitaphs Translated From Chiabrera by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works