‘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:
- Владимир Маяковский – Первый вывоз
- Claïs by Sappho
- Николай Некрасов – Внимая ужасам войны
- Омар Хайям – Для тех, кто умирает
- An Arundel Tomb by Philip Larkin
- On Flatteries (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Виктор Гончаров – Не знаю, что делать с душою
- The Thought-Fox by Ted Hughes
- Владимир Высоцкий – Запись в книге почётных гостей Киевского завода шампанских вин
- Валерий Брюсов – К моей стране
- Multi-Miners & Co. Present Ned Kelly by Graham Rowlands
- Юнна Мориц – Комарово
- Interpret The Light
- Низами Гянджеви – Спать не стоит
- One Whisper of the Beloved by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
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
- Streets Of Teal by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Shining Armour by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Shallow Valley by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Shadow Overhead by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Rusty Folks by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Quest for Thee by Vanessa Perkins
- Precious Pearl by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Power Of Love by Valentine Mbagu
- Parallel Lies by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Mauve Mittens by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Innocent Steps by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Vaishnavi Prakash – Vaishnavi Prakash
- Gimmick In A Geisha by Vaishnavi Prakash
- False Intimacy by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Eternal Love by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Esteemed Bliss by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Empty Pages by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Daffodil Dreams by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Curse of Righteousness by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Crawling At Sea by Vaishnavi Prakash
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.