‘T IS very true, I thought you once as fair
As women in th’ idea are;*
Whatever here seems beauteous, seem’d to be
But a faint metaphor of thee:
But then, methoughts, there something shin’d within,
Which casts this lustre o’er thy skin;
Nor could I choose but count it the sun’s light,
Which made this cloud appear so bright.
But, since I knew thy falsehood and thy pride,
And all thy thousand faults beside,
A very Moor, methinks, plac’d near to thee,
White as his teeth would seem to be.
So men (they say) by hell’s delusions led,
Have ta’en a succubus to their bed;
Believe it fair, and themselves happy call,
Till the cleft foot discovers all:
Then they start from ‘t, half ghosts themselves with fear;
And devil, as ‘t is, doth appear.
So, since against my will I found thee foul,
Deform’d and crooked in thy soul,
My reason straight did to my senses shew,
That they might be mistaken too:
Nay, when the world but knows how false you are,
There’s not a man will think you fair;
Thy shape will monstrous in their fancies be,
They’ll call their eyes as false as thee.
Be what thou wilt, hate will present thee so,
As Puritans do the Pope, and Papists Luther do.
A few random poems:
- Now Hollow Fires Burn Out to Black poem – Alfred Edward Housman
- Виталий Бакалдин – Я не рос среди берез
- The Beacon Fires
- Николай Тихонов – Длинный путь
- Olney Hymn 50: The Christian by William Cowper
- Алексей Жемчужников – Весна
- Зинаида Александрова – Сама
- A Poet’s Eightieth Birthday poem – Alfred Austin
- The Sergeant’s Weddin’ by Rudyard Kipling
- Анатолий Жигулин – Кордон Песчаный
- hai_kou.html
- The Senses of Art poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- Юрий Коринец – О счастье
- Portrait d’Une Femme poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Welcome
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
- Reproof: A Satire. by Tobias Smollett
- Tobias Smollett – Tobias Smollett
- Love Elegy (in imitation of Tibullus) by Tobias Smollett
- “Let the nymph still avoid and be deaf to the swain” by Tobias Smollett
- To Independence by Tobias Smollett
- “From the man whom I love, though my heart I disguise,” by Tobias Smollett
- “Come listen, ye students of every degree” by Tobias Smollett
- Blue-Eyed Ann by Tobias Smollett
- Advice: A Satire. by Tobias Smollett
- You Will Forget! by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Words Of Love Forevermore by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- What Is Woman But A Song! by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- The Squirrel by Todd H. C. Fischer
- The Pulling Away by Timothy Cole
- The moon at noon by Tom Mukasa
- The Leather Suitcase by Tom Berman
- The Mocking Bird by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- The Heart That Is Pining by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- The Clime Of My Birth by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- The Bird Has Vanished by Timothy Thomas Fortune
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

Abraham Cowley (1618 – 1667), the Royalist Poet.Poet and essayist Abraham Cowley was born in London, England, in 1618. He displayed early talent as a poet, publishing his first collection of poetry, Poetical Blossoms (1633), at the age of 15. Cowley studied at Cambridge University but was stripped of his Cambridge fellowship during the English Civil War and expelled for refusing to sign the Solemn League and Covenant of 1644. In turn, he accompanied Queen Henrietta Maria to France, where he spent 12 years in exile, serving as her secretary. During this time, Cowley completed The Mistress (1647). Arguably his most famous work, the collection exemplifies Cowley’s metaphysical style of love poetry. After the Restoration, Cowley returned to England, where he was reinstated as a Cambridge fellow and earned his MD before finally retiring to the English countryside. He is buried at Westminster Abbey alongside Geoffrey Chaucer and Edmund Spenser. Cowley is a wonderful poet and an outstanding representative of the English baroque.