A summer wind blows through the open porch,
And, ‘neath the rustling eaves,
A summer light of moonrise, calm and pale,
Shines through a vale of leaves.
The soft gusts bring a scent of summer flowers,
Fresh with the falling dew,
And round the doorway, glimmering white as snow,
The tender petals strew.
Clear through the silence, from a reedy pool
The curlew’s whistle thrills;
A lonely mopoke sorrowfully cries
From the far-folding hills.
O lovely night, and yet so sad and strange!
My fingers touch the key;
And down the empty church my Christmas song
Goes ringing, glad and free.
Each sweet note knocks at dreaming memory’s door,
And memory wakes in pain;
The spectral faces she had turn’d away
Come crowding in again.
The air seems full of music all around-
I know not what I hear,
The multitudinous echoes of the past,
Or these few voices near.
Ah me! the dim aisle vaguely widens out,
I see me stand therein;
A glory of grey sculpture takes the light
A winter morn brings in.
No more I smell the fragrant jessamine flowers
That flake a moonlit floor;
The rustling night-breeze and the open porch
I hear and see no more.
Great solemn windows, down a long, long nave
Their shadow’d rainbows fling;
Dark Purbeck shafts, with hoary capitals,
In carven archways spring.
And overhead the throbbing organ waves
Roll in one mighty sea,
Bearing the song the herald angels sang
Of Christ’s nativity.
Dear hands touch mine beneath the open book,
Sweet eyes look in my face,-
They smile, they melt in darkness; I am snatch’d
From my familiar place.
The summer night-wind blows upon my tears;
Its flowery scent is pain.
O cold, white day! O noble minster-when
May I come back again!
To hear the angels’ anthem shake the air,
Where never discord jars,-
The Christmas carols in the windy street,
Under the frosty stars;
The dream-like falling from the still, grey skies,
With falling flakes of snow,
Of mellow chimes from old cathedral bells,
Solemn and sweet and slow.
To hear loved footsteps beating time with mine
Along the churchyard path,-
To see that ring of faces once again
Drawn round the blazing hearth.
When may I come? O Lord, when may I go?
Nay, I must wait Thy will.
Give patience, Lord, and in Thine own best way
My hopes and prayers fulfil.
A few random poems:
- A Good Father by William Barnes
- Of the Visage of Things. by Walt Whitman
- These Green-Going-to-Yellow by Marvin Bell
- Utopia by Ndue Ukaj
- Ballade Of His Books poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Юрий Левитанский – Мое поколение
- Шекспир – С любовью связан жизненный мой путь – Сонет 92
- Love Sonnet XXVIII poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Beautiful Moroccan by Stanley Wilkin
- The True Beauty of Poetry
- Олег Сердобольский – Птенчик
- Иван Бунин – Балагула
- Epistle to the Rev. John M’Math by Robert Burns
- Mother, I cannot mind my Wheel by Walter Savage Landor
- Robert Burns: How Cruel Are The Parents: Altered from an old English song. tune-“John Anderson, my jo.”
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
- Hope A-Left Behind by William Barnes
- Heedless O’ My Love by William Barnes
- Haven Woones Fortune A-Twold by William Barnes
- The Happy Days When I Wer Young by William Barnes
- Hallowed Pleäces by William Barnes
- Gwain To Feäir by William Barnes
- Gwaïn To Brookwell by William Barnes
- Gwaïn Down The Steps Vor Water by William Barnes
- Guy Faux’s Night by William Barnes
- Grief An’ Gladness by William Barnes
- Grammer’s Shoes by William Barnes
- Grammer A-Crippled by William Barnes
- Good Meäster Collins by William Barnes
- Gammony Gaÿ by William Barnes
- A Father Out, An’ Mother Hwome by William Barnes
- Farmer’s Son by William Barnes
- Fanny’s Be’th-Day by William Barnes
- False Friends-Like by William Barnes
- Evenèn Twilight by William Barnes
- Evenèn Light by William Barnes
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
Ada Cambridge (1844 – 1926), also known as Ada Cross, was an English-born Australian author and poetess. She wrote more than 25 works of fiction, three volumes of poetry and two autobiographical works.