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:
- Love Sonnet LX poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Sir Hugh; Or The Jew’s Daughter poem – Andrew Lang poems
- The (REAL) Tale of the Tortoise and the Hare by Ross D Tyler
- The Ghosts of the Buffaloes by Vachel Lindsay
- Николай Гумилев – На Дуксе ли, на Бенце ль я
- Sonnet 149: Canst thou, O cruel, say I love thee not by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Британишский – Фет в кирасирском полку
- Владимир Высоцкий – Нет меня, я покинул Расею
- Владимир Высоцкий – Тюменская нефть
- Byzantium by William Butler Yeats
- Terrible Ted poem – Alexander E. Musset poems | Poetry Monster
- Sonnet 12
- Olney Hymn 54: Love Constraining To Obedience by William Cowper
- Олег Григорьев – Ну, как тебе на ветке
- Gliding Over All. by Walt Whitman
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
- Илона Грошева – Мой друг Евгений
- Илона Грошева – Мечтается Алине
- Илона Грошева – Любовь две синички на ветке
- Илона Грошева – Когда приходит Дима в парк
- Илона Грошева – Каждый год в себе несет воскресение
- Илона Грошева – Ира
- Иида Дакоцу – Сложено на вечере поэзии хайку в храме Номандзи
- Иида Дакоцу – Сквозь зимнюю мглу
- Иида Дакоцу – Синтоистское святилище у подножия горы в Одани
- Иида Дакоцу – С землею смешались
- Иида Дакоцу – Розу покинув
- Игорь Северянин – Sirel
- Игорь Северянин – Синее
- Игорь Северянин – Симфония
- Игорь Северянин – Шутливая рондель
- Игорь Северянин – Щит-солнце
- Игорь Северянин – Парижские Жоржики
- Игорь Северянин – Памяти В. Башкина
- Игорь Северянин – Памяти О.Н. Чюминой
- Игорь Северянин – Памяти Н.И. Кульбина
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.