A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)
If I was drawn here from a distant place,
‘Twas not to pray nor hear our friend’s address,
But, gazing once more on your winsome face,
To worship there Ideal Loveliness.
On that pure shrine that has too long ignored
The gifts that once I brought so frequently
I lay this votive offering, to record
How sweet your quiet beauty seemed to me.
Enchanting girl, my faith is not a thing
By futile prayers and vapid psalm-singing
To vent in crowded nave and public pew.
My creed is simple: that the world is fair,
And beauty the best thing to worship there,
And I confess it by adoring you.
A few random poems:
- A Kind of Life by Stanley Wilkin
- Владимир Маяковский – Гимназист или строитель
- O Nightingale! Thou Surely Art by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Напрасные жертвы
- To A Young Lady. On Her Recovery From A Fever by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Quarrel In Old Age by William Butler Yeats
- Slumber-Song by Siegfried Sassoon
- Владимир Маяковский – Первый из пяти
- Humankind – How Limitless In Genius by Michael Levy
- Sonnet 42: That thou hast her, it is not all my grief by William Shakespeare
- Ambulances by Philip Larkin
- Of Myself – the Essay and Poems on Myself by Abraham Cowley
- Василий Курочкин – Старая песня
- Владимир Солоухин – Волки
- Sonet 57 by William Alexander
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
- Out Of The Window
- On The Bus
- Minoan Porcelain
- Love Song
- Lapr S Midi Dun Faune
- Italy
- Inspiration
- In Uncertainty To A Lady
- Doors Of The Temple
- Darkness
- Crapulous Impression
- Complaint Of A Poet Manqu
- By The Fire
- Books And Thoughts
- Anniversaries
- A Melody By Scarlatti
- A Little Memory
- The Storm
- The State
- The Poor Fisherman
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 Seeger (1888-1916) was an American war poet who fought and died in World War I during the Battle of the Somme, serving in the French Foreign Legion. Seeger was the brother of Charles Seeger, a noted American pacifist and musicologist and the uncle of folk musician, Pete Seeger.