A poem by Alexander Block – Alexandre Block – Alexandr Blok – Александр Блок
(1880-1921)
A small circus is amazing;
It’s for kids who are merry and bright;
There a girl and a boy’re gazing
At the ladies, kings, and droll sprites.
… And that terrible music cries over our lot,
Despondently howls the bow…
The scary sprite has captured a tiny tot,
With cranberry juice dripping down.
– The boy –
He’ll be rescued from a new burst of anger
With a wave of a delicate hand.
There – lights coming on,
See their growing reflection?
See the smoke? See the torch on the stand?
This must be the royal procession.
– The girl –
Come now, why all this teasing talk?
This is the devil’s escort…
In the daylight the queen goes out for a walk,
Head to toe with rosebuds decorated.
And escort of knights hold the train of her frock
And jingle their swords, all excited.
Suddenly the clown twists in the lights
Screaming, «Please help me! Please help!
I am bleeding red cranberry juice!
I have bandages made of rags!
I have a paper helmet on my head!
I’ve a wooden sword in my hand!»
Here both the girl and the boy broke into tears,
And the merry street circus shut its doors.
A few random poems:
- Integrity
- I Keep Six Honest… by Rudyard Kipling
- “`Roses crimson, roses white” poem – Alfred Austin
- Repression of War Experience by Siegfried Sassoon
- In Praise of Laziness by William Wycherley
- A dragonfly that committed suicide by Preeth Nambiar
- Let me draw your face by St Antoine de la Vuadi
- Day’s Rain Is Done poem – Alexander Pushkin
- To L. R. E. by Sara Teasdale
- Константин Бальмонт – Морская песня
- The Elms poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- And Doth Not a Meeting Like This by Thomas Moore
- Is It True! by Luis Estable
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Запретный плод
- Swallows by Richard Schiffman
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
- The Story Of Our Lives by Mark Strand
- The Self and the Mulberry by Marvin Bell
- Your Poems on My Patio by Martina Reisz Newberry
- The Room by Mark Strand
- Yesterday’s Mishaps by Mary Etta Metcalf
- The River Has Its Memories by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Yes Dear by Mary Etta Metcalf
- The River by Mark Olynyk
- Words Unspoken by Mark Olynyk
- The Remains by Mark Strand
- Woman With Parasol by Martin Willitts Jr.
- The Poetic Principle by Mark Olynyk
- Why Write? by Mark Olynyk
- The Other Side of Panic by Martina Reisz Newberry
- Where Have We All Gone by Mary Etta Metcalf
- The joyful things in life by Martin Smith
- What is Poetry? by Mark Olynyk
- The Frantic by Mark Miller
- Wednesday by Marvin Bell
- The End of the Argument by Martina Reisz Newberry
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.