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.
A few random poems:
- Weak Is The Will Of Man, His Judgement Blind by William Wordsworth
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись на иллюминацию 1747 года перед зимним домом
- Вера Полозкова – И тут он приваливается к оградке
- Robert Burns: Scroggam, My Dearie:
- Sonnet CL by William Shakespeare
- Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning
- Et Le Marbre Creuse… by Martine Morillon-Carreau
- I Want Those Words Today by Pandian Chelliah
- Ольга Седакова – В винном отделе
- Nestling by Mark R Slaughter
- My Garden by Thomas Edward Brown
- At Sea by Sara Teasdale
- Владимир Корнилов – Прямота
- Though In My Firmament Thou Wilt Not Shine
- Николай Заболоцкий – Голубиная книга
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
- Book Fifth-Books by William Wordsworth
- Book Eleventh: France [concluded] by William Wordsworth
- Book Eighth: Retrospect–Love Of Nature Leading To Love Of Man by William Wordsworth
- “Behold Vale! I Said, When I Shall Con” by William Wordsworth
- Beggars by William Wordsworth
- “Avaunt All Specious Pliancy Of Mind” by William Wordsworth
- At Applewaite, Near Keswick 1804 by William Wordsworth
- ” As faith thus sanctified the warrior’s crest” by William Wordsworth
- Artegal And Elidure by William Wordsworth
- Anticipation, October 1803 by William Wordsworth
- Animal Tranquility And Decay by William Wordsworth
- Anecdote For Fathers by William Wordsworth
- Andrew Jones by William Wordsworth
- “And Is It Among Rude Untutored Dales” by William Wordsworth
- An Evening Walk by William Wordsworth
- Among All Lovely Things My Love Had Been by William Wordsworth
- Alice Fell, Or Poverty by William Wordsworth
- After-Thought by William Wordsworth
- “Advance – Come Forth From Thy Tyrolean Ground” by William Wordsworth
- Admonition by William Wordsworth
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

Abraham Cowley (1618 – 1667), the Royalist Poet.Poet and essayist Abraham Cowley was born in London, England, in 1618. He displayed early talent as a poet, publishing his first collection of poetry, Poetical Blossoms (1633), at the age of 15. Cowley studied at Cambridge University but was stripped of his Cambridge fellowship during the English Civil War and expelled for refusing to sign the Solemn League and Covenant of 1644. In turn, he accompanied Queen Henrietta Maria to France, where he spent 12 years in exile, serving as her secretary. During this time, Cowley completed The Mistress (1647). Arguably his most famous work, the collection exemplifies Cowley’s metaphysical style of love poetry. After the Restoration, Cowley returned to England, where he was reinstated as a Cambridge fellow and earned his MD before finally retiring to the English countryside. He is buried at Westminster Abbey alongside Geoffrey Chaucer and Edmund Spenser. Cowley is a wonderful poet and an outstanding representative of the English baroque.