How will our unborn children scoff at us
In the good years to come,
The happier years to come,
Because, like driven sheep, we yielded thus,
Before the shearers dumb.
What are the words their wiser lips will say?
“These men had gained the light;
“These women knew the right;
“They had their chance, and let it slip away.
“They did not, when they might.
“They were the first to hear the gospel preached,
“And to believe therein;
“Yet they remained in sin.
“They saw the promised land they might have reached,
“And dared not enter in.
“They might have won their freedom, had they tried;
“No savage laws forbade;
“For them the way was made.
“They might have had the joys for which they cried
“And yet they shrank, afraid.
“Afraid to face-the martyr’s rack and flame?
“The traitor’s dungeon? Nay-
“Of what their world would say-
“The smile, the joke, the thinnest ghost of blame!
“Lord! Lord! What fools were they!”
And we-no longer actors of the stage
We cumber now-maybe
With other eyes shall see
This wasted chance, and with celestial rage
Cry “O what fools were we!”
A few random poems:
- Robert Burns: The Banks O’ Doon: Third Version
- Владимир Высоцкий – Снег скрипел подо мной
- After Yesterday poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- English Poetry. Adam Lindsay Gordon. The Rhyme of Joyous Garde. Адам Линдсей Гордон.
- Ольга Ермолаева – Ты где летал, мой падающий с Фанских гор
- Lover’s Gifts XVI: She Dwelt Here by the Pool by Rabindranath Tagore
- Sparrow singing by Yosa Buson
- The Illinois Village by Vachel Lindsay
- Inscription For The Tomb Of Mr. Hamilton by William Cowper
- what a poet must do by Raj Arumugam
- Of Three Or Four In The Room by Yehuda Amichai
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Богач
- Владимир Маяковский – О патриархе Тихоне
- I Want, I Want by Sylvia Plath
- Ольга Берггольц – Так еще ни разу не забыла
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
- Yasmini
- Yasin Khan
- Written In Cananore
- Wings
- When Love Is Over
- Verses
- Verses Faiz Ulla
- Verse By Taj Mahomed
- Vayu The Wind
- Valgovinds Song In The Spring
- Valgovinds Boat Song
- Unforgotten
- Unanswered
- Two Songs By Sitara Of Kashmir
- To The Unattainable
- To The Unattainable Lament Of Mahomed Akram
- To The Hills
- To M C N
- To Aziz Song Of Mahomed Akram
- Till I Wake
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.