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:
- Heart To Heart by Rita Dove
- The First Part: Sonnet 1 – In my first years, and prime yet not at height by William Drummond
- Низами Гянджеви – Семь красавиц
- A Drinking Song by William Butler Yeats
- Be’mi’ster by William Barnes
- Валерий Брюсов – Гимн Афродите
- Thoughts. by Walt Whitman
- Study in Hands by Théophile Gautier
- Михаил Лермонтов – Бой с барсом (Отрывок Мцыри)
- Cloris, it is not thy disdaine by Sidney Godolphin
- Threads of Gold by Ronald G. Auguste
- A Love Song from the North by Sarojini Naidu
- La Fleur by Shaunna Harper
- Notes For The Legend Of Salad Woman by Michael Ondaatje
- Sleep Spaces by Robert Desnos
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
- Ольга Берггольц – Слышала, приедешь к нам не скоро ты
- Ольга Берггольц – Синеглазый мальчик, синеглазый
- Ольга Берггольц – Сибиринка
- Ольга Берггольц – Сестре
- Ольга Берггольц – Родине
- Ольга Берггольц – Разговор с соседкой
- Ольга Берггольц – Простите бедность этих строк
- Ольга Берггольц – Придешь, как приходят слепые
- Ольга Берггольц – Потеряла я вечером слово
- Ольга Берггольц – Порука
- Ольга Берггольц – Полуночная
- Ольга Берггольц – Покуда небо сумрачное меркнет
- Ольга Берггольц – Подбирают фомки и отмычки
- Ольга Берггольц – Письмо из Ленинграда
- Ольга Берггольц – Песня о жене патриота
- Ольга Берггольц – Песня о ленинградской матери
- Ольга Берггольц – Песня дочери
- Ольга Берггольц – Первое письмо на Каму
- Ольга Берггольц – Пахнет соснами, гарью, тленьем
- Ольга Берггольц – Память (Всей земною горечью и болью)
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.