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:
- it flows by Raj Arumugam
- Late Fragment by Raymond Carver
- Шекспир – Разлука сердце делит пополам – Сонет 39
- Николай Заболоцкий – Осеннее утро
- To a Common Prostitute. by Walt Whitman
- Ecologue IX by Virgil
- Эмиль Верхарн – Хлебопечение
- Raise the head, child by Vinko Kalinić
- Владимир Высоцкий – На Филиппинах бархатный сезон
- happiness.html
- Зинаида Александрова – Смешные человечки
- Outside the Window, Snow
- Николай Тихонов – Когда уйду
- The Book of Hours of Sister Clotilde poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Bride and Groom Lie Hidden for Three Days by Ted Hughes
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
- A New Year’s Resolution to Leave Dundee by William Topaz McGonagall
- A Humble Heroine by William Topaz McGonagall
- A Descriptive Poem on the Silvery Tay by William Topaz McGonagall
- A Christmas Carol by William Topaz McGonagall
- On The Porch At The Frost Place, Franconia, N. H. by William Matthews
- On the Nativity of Christ by William Dunbar
- On a Soldier Fallen in the Philippines by William Vaughn Moody
- Ode to My Guitar by William Wright Harris
- No Return by William Matthews
- Mingus At The Showplace by William Matthews
- Memory by William Browne
- Lament for the Makers by William Dunbar
- Job Interview by William Matthews
- In Honour of the City of London by William Dunbar
- Homer’s Seeing-Eye Dog by William Matthews
- Gloucester Moods by William Vaughn Moody
- Earliest Spring by William Dean Howells
- Composed Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth
- Britannia’s Pastorals by William Browne
- Between the Dusk of a Summer Night by William Ernest Henley
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.