A poem by Alexander Block – Alexandre Block – Alexandr Blok – Александр Блок
(1880-1921)
The river stretched. It flows, idly grieves,
And washes both banks.
In steppe, above light clay of cliffs
Rinks mourn in ranks.
O Russia! Dear wife! With clearness and pain
We see the lengthy way!
It sent an arrow of ancient Tartar reign;
In breast it lay.
The way through steppes and an incessant plight,
Through your, o Russia, lot!
And alien dark and dark of night
I fear not.
Let be the night. We’ll ride and light in gloom
Camp-fires late.
The holy flag will flash in fume,
And Khan’s steel blade …
And endless battle! We only dream of peace
Through blood and dust …
The mare of steppes flies on and flees,
And tramples the grass …
There’s no end! The miles and cliffs flash past
Stop crazy flood!
The frightened clouds go fast,
Sun sets in blood!
Sun sets in blood! Blood streams from heart away!
O cry, my heart …
There’s no peace! Through steppe the bay
Prolongs the flight!
A few random poems:
- Lament for James, Earl of Glencairn by Robert Burns
- To Dorothy by Marvin Bell
- Lost poem – Alfred Austin
- Robert Burns: Epitaph For James Smith:
- Ellipsis by Shaunna Harper
- Вера Павлова – Снег
- Алексей Жемчужников – Себе
- Night by William Morris
- A Conceited Mistake by Vasko Popa
- Sleepless by Sara Teasdale
- Epitaph on William Hood, Senior by Robert Burns
- I looked here by Stephen Crane
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Прощание с саблею
- Владимир Костров – Полон взгляд тихой боли и страха
- Passion of Greatness by Terence Ray Robertson
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
- La Nue
- Kyrenaikos
- Juvenilia An Ode To Natural Beauty
- I Loved
- I Have A Rendezvous With Death
- Fragments
- Eudaemon
- El Extraviado
- Do You Remember Once
- Coucy
- Champagne 1914 15
- Broceliande
- Bellinglise
- At The Tomb Of Napoleon
- Ariosto Orlando Furioso Canto X 91 99
- Antinous
- An Ode To Antares
- All Thats Not Love
- After An Epigram Of Clement Marot
- A Message To America
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

Alexander Blok (1880-1921), also Block, was a Russian poet, writer, publicist, playwright, translator and literary critic. A classic of Russian literature.