Tentanda via est, etc.
What shall I do to be forever known,
And make the age to come my own?
I shall like beasts or common people die,
Unless you write my elegy;
Whilst others great by being born are grown,
Their mothers’ labor, not their own.
In this scale gold, in th’other fame does lie,
The weight of that mounts this so high.
These men are fortune’s jewels, molded bright,
Brought forth with their own fire and light;
If I her vulgar stone, for either look,
Out of myself it must be strook.
Yet I must on : what sound is’t strikes mine ear?
Sure I Fame’s trumpet hear;
It sounds like the last trumpet, for it can
Raise up the buried man.
Unpassed Alps stop me, but I’ll cut through all,
And march, the Muses’ Hannibal.
Hence, all the flattering vanities that lay
Nets of roses in the way;
Hence, the desire of honors or estate
And all that is not above fate;
Hence, Love himself, the tyrant of my days,
Which intercepts my coming praise.
Come, my best friends, my books, and lead me on:
‘Tis time that I were gone.
Welcome, great Stagirite, and teach me now
All I was born to know;
Thy scholar’s vict’ries thou dost far outdo,
He conquered th’earth, the whole world you.
Welcome, learn’d Cicero, whose blest tongue and wit
Preserve Rome’s greatness yet:
Thou art the first of orators; only he
Who best can praise thee, next must be.
Welcome the Mantuan swan, Vergil the wise,
Whose verse walks highest, but not flies;
Who brought green poesy to her perfect age,
And made that art which was a rage.
Tell me, ye mighty three, what shall I do
To be like one of you?
But you have climbed the mountain’s top, there sit
On the calm flour’shing head of it,
And whilst with wearied steps we upward go,
See us and clouds below.

A few random poems:
- Evening Star by William Blake
- A bat flits by Yosa Buson
- Robert Burns: Epigram On Mr. James Gracie:
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песенка про мангустов
- The Perfect Wave by Shel Silverstein
- Аля Кудряшева – Осень в городе
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня Алисы
- The Waggon A-Stooded by William Barnes
- My teacher wasn’t half as nice as yours seems to be by Roald Dahl
- Sorry by Tom Mukasa
- The Last Whisper by Nizar Sartawi
- The Labour by Mousumi Guha Roy
- Олег Бундур – Про любовь
- How To Get On In Society poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Decameron poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
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 Instructor by Rudyard Kipling
- The Hyaenas by Rudyard Kipling
- The Houses by Rudyard Kipling
- The Heritage by Rudyard Kipling
- The Greek National Anthem by Rudyard Kipling
- The Grave of the Hundered Head by Rudyard Kipling
- The Gods of the Copybook Headings by Rudyard Kipling
- The Gipsy Trail by Rudyard Kipling
- The Gift of the Sea by Rudyard Kipling
- The Galley-Slave by Rudyard Kipling
- The Floods by Rudyard Kipling
- The Flight by Rudyard Kipling
- The First Chantey by Rudyard Kipling
- The Fires by Rudyard Kipling
- The Female of the Species by Rudyard Kipling
- The Fall of Jock Gillespie by Rudyard Kipling
- The Fairies’ Siege by Rudyard Kipling
- The Fabulists by Rudyard Kipling
- The Explorer by Rudyard Kipling
- The Explanation by Rudyard Kipling
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.