The Innocent Ill

Though all thy gestures and discourses be

Coin’d and stamp’d by modesty;

Though from thy tongue ne’er slipp’d away

One word which nuns at th’ altar might not say;

Yet such a sweetness, such a grace,

In all thy speech appear,

That what to th’ eye a beauteous face,

That thy tongue is to th’ ear:

So cunningly it wounds the heart,

It strikes such heat through every part,

That thou a tempter worse than Satan art.

Though in thy thoughts scarce any tracks have been

So much as of original sin,

Such charms thy beauty wears as might

Desires in dying confess’d saints excite:

Thou, with strange adultery,

Dost in each breast a brothel keep;

Awake all men do lust for thee,

And some enjoy thee when they sleep.

Ne’er before did woman live,

Who to such multitudes did give

The root and cause of sin, but only Eve.

Though in thy breast so quick a pity be,

That a fly’s death ‘s a wound to thee;

Though savage and rock-hearted those

Appear, that weep not ev’n Romance’s woes;

Yet ne’er before was tyrant known,

Whose rage was of so large extent;

The ills thou dost are whole thine own;

Thou ‘rt principal and instrument:

In all the deaths that come from you,

You do the treble office do

Of judge, of torturer, and of weapon too.

Thou lovely instrument of angry Fate,

Which God did for our faults create!

Thou pleasant, universal ill,

Which, sweet as health, yet like a plague dost kill!

Thou kind, well-natur’d tyranny!

Thou chaste committer of a rape!

Thou voluntary destiny,

Which no man can, or would, escape!

So gentle, and so glad to spare,

So wondrous good, and wondrous fair,

(We know) ev’n the destroying-angels are.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 Birch-Tree at Loschwitz poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Straw in the Street poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Sonnet poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Sinfonia Eroica poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Run to Death poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Ralph to Mary poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Philosophy poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Out of Town poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• On the Wye in May poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• On the Threshold poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Oh, Is It Love? poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• New Love, New Life poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Magdalen poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• London Poets poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• London in July poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Lohengrin poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• Last Words poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• June poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• In the Nower poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy
• In the Night poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Levy

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

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The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works