Oh, Masters, you who rule the world,
Will you not wait with me awhile,
When swords are sheathed and sails are furled,
And all the fields with harvest smile?
I would not waste your time for long,
I ask you but, when you are tired,
To read how by the weak, the strong
Are weighed and worshipped and desired.
When weary of the Mart, the Loom,
The Withering-house, the Riffle-blocks,
The Barrack-square, the Engine-room,
The pick-axe, ringing on the rocks,–
When tents are pitched and work is done,
While restful twilight broods above,
By fresh-lit lamp, or dying sun,
See in my songs how women love.
We shared your lonely watch by night,
We knew you faithful at the helm,
Our thoughts went with you through the fight,
That saved a soul,–or wrecked a realm
Ah, how our hearts leapt forth to you,
In pride and joy, when you prevailed,
And when you died, serene and true:
–We wept in silence when you failed!
Oh, brain that did not gain the gold!
Oh, arm, that could not wield the sword,
Here is the love, that is not sold,
Here are the hearts to hail you Lord!
You played and lost the game? What then?
The rules are harsh and hard we know,
You, still, Oh, brothers, are the men
Whom we in secret reverence so.
Your work was waste? Maybe your share
Lay in the hour you laughed and kissed;
Who knows but what your son shall wear
The laurels that his father missed?
Ay, you who win, and you who lose,
Whether you triumph,–or despair,–
When your returning footsteps choose
The homeward track, our love is there.
For, since the world is ordered thus,
To you the fame, the stress, the sword,
We can but wait, until to us
You give yourselves, for our reward.
To Whaler’s deck and Coral beach,
To lonely Ranch and Frontier-Fort,
Beyond the narrow bounds of speech
I lay the cable of my thought.
I fain would send my thanks to you,
(Though who am I, to give you praise?)
Since what you are, and work you do,
Are lessons for our easier ways.
‘Neath alien stars your camp-fires glow,
I know you not,–your tents are far.
My hope is but in song to show,
How honoured and dear you are.
A few random poems:
- A Fountain, a Bottle, a Donkey’s Ears, and Some Books by Robert Frost
- Three Sonnets Written In Mid-Channel poem – Alfred Austin
- Zermatt To The Matterhorn. by Thomas Hardy
- Gratitudes Of A Dozen Roses
- Vain
- Владимир Маяковский – Профплакаты
- Extemporaneous Effusion on being appointed to an Excise Division by Robert Burns
- Fragment From Aeschylus
- Robert Burns: On James Grieve, Laird Of Boghead, Tarbolton :
- In A Motel Parking Lot, Thinking Of Dr. Williams by Wendell Berry
- Grow Up: Time to Give Up Your YA Books
- Old well by Yosa Buson
- Smiling Buddha by Satish Verma
- The Mask by William Butler Yeats
- Some One by Walter de la Mare
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
- Note to Reality by Tony Hoagland
- National Trust by Tony Harrison
- Memory As a Hearing Aid by Tony Hoagland
- Marked with D. by Tony Harrison
- Lucky by Tony Hoagland
- Long Distance II by Tony Harrison
- Long Distance I by Tony Harrison
- Jet by Tony Hoagland
- Tony Harrison – Tony Harrison
- In Praise of Their Divorce by Tony Hoagland
- I Have News For You by Tony Hoagland
- Heredity by Tony Harrison
- Grammar by Tony Hoagland
- Don’t Tell Anyone by Tony Hoagland
- Disappointment by Tony Hoagland
- Coming and Going by Tony Hoagland
- Book Ends by Tony Harrison
- Big Grab by Tony Hoagland
- Bible Study by Tony Hoagland
- Beauty by Tony Hoagland
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
Violet Nicolson ( 1865 – 1904); otherwise known as Adela Florence Nicolson (née Cory), was an English poetess who wrote under the pseudonym of Laurence Hope, however she became known as Violet Nicolson. In the early 1900s, she became a best-selling author. She committed suicide and is buried in Madras, now Chennai, India.