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:
- Crystal Gazer by Sylvia Plath
- Attempted Assassination of the Queen by William Topaz McGonagall
- Epitaph for Robert Aiken by Robert Burns
- Pure call of the wilderness by Vinko Kalinic
- Николай Гумилев – Леопарди (Набросок)
- Cleared by Rudyard Kipling
- Upon A House Shaken By The Land Agitation by William Butler Yeats
- Poems On Beauty by Rabindranath Tagore
- Низами Гянджеви – Пускай охотится на всех газелеоких
- Владимир Британишский – Океан с континентом воюют
- Sestina: Altaforte poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Николай Языков – Водопад
- Владимир Высоцкий – Свадебная
- Вера Павлова – Зеркало по природе правдиво
- An Encounter by Robert Frost
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
- Зинаида Александрова – Маленькой елочке холодно зимой
- Зинаида Александрова – Лошадка
- Зинаида Александрова – Кролики
- Зинаида Александрова – Котята
- Зинаида Александрова – Колокольчики
- Зинаида Александрова – Карманный фонарик
- Зинаида Александрова – Игрушки
- Зинаида Александрова – Гибель Чапаева
- Зинаида Александрова – Дозор
- Зинаида Александрова – Давайте, девочки, купаться
- Зинаида Александрова – Четыре старушки
- Зинаида Александрова – Чай в саду
- Зинаида Александрова – Большая ложка
- Зинаида Александрова – Белочка
- Зинаида Александрова – Баиньки
- Владимир Вишневский – Звучит воинственно: “носки”
- Владимир Вишневский – Заявка на романс
- Владимир Вишневский – Я желаю вам громких успехов
- Владимир Вишневский – Хотел я искупаться в знак протеста
- Владимир Вишневский – Вернувшись от дверей, присела
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.