A poem by Alan Dugan
Because of the unaccountable spirit of the troops
oh we were marched as we were never marched before
and flanked them off from home. Stupid Meade
was after them, head on to tail, but we convinced
him, finally, to flank, flank, cut off their head.
He finally understood, the idiot, and got a fort
named after him, for wisdom. He probably thought
Lee would conquer Washington from Appomattox
if he, Meade, should march his infantry behind
him, Lee. Ah well, the unaccountable spirit of the troops
triumphed, Meade got his fort, Grant got his presidency,
Sherman got his motto, what was it? War is heck?, Lee got a military school
for the education of young Southern gentlemen, and the Union
Army was taken over by Southern noncommissioned officers
in the wars against the Indians to the west. I know all
about this, I know who won, I served under them
for three hundred and fifty years in World War II,
just long enough not to be called a rookie but a veteran,
and realized the rank and order of my enemies:
first, the West Point officers; second, the red-neck sergeants;
third, the Nazis and perhaps the Japanese. I won
all of these wars as a private soldier, for a while,
and am happy to have done so: without me
Hitler and Hirohito would he ruling the world
instead of America and Russia, but I still will not
drive through Georgia with New York license plates.
A few random poems:
- Гавриил Державин – На храм при Гапсале
- Валерий Брюсов – Из песен Мальдуна
- The Deeper Shadow by Pierre Reverdy
- Ghazal of Rumi by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Владимир Маяковский – В РСФСР 130 миллионов населения (Агитплакаты)
- The Answer by Rudyard Kipling
- A Stepmother’s Vain Love by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Afternoon song by Sunil Sharma
- Home Is So Sad by Philip Larkin
- Sonnet 132: Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me by William Shakespeare
- At Grass by Philip Larkin
- Вера Павлова – Удобряю ресницы снами
- The Precinct. Rochester poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Synesthesia by Orla McGreevy
- A Late Lark Twitters From The Quiet Skies by William Ernest Henley
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
- On A Goldfinch, Starved To Death In His Cage by William Cowper
- On A Fowler, By Isidorus by William Cowper
- On A Battered Beauty (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On A Bath, By Plato by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 9: The Contrite Heart by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 7: Vanity of the World by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 68: Light Shining Out Of Darkness by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 67: Longing To Be With Christ by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 66: I Will Praise The Lord At All Times by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 64: Praise For Faith by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 63: Not Of Works by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 61: The Narrow Way by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 60: Abuse Of The Gospel by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 59: A Living And A Dead Faith by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 57: The New Convert by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 56: Hatred Of Sin by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 55: The Heart Healed And Changed By Mercy by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 54: Love Constraining To Obedience by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 53: My Soul Thirsteth For God by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 52: For The Poor by William Cowper
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

Alan Dugan (1923 – 2003) an American poet, a contemporary classic of American poetry.