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:
- Владимир Высоцкий – Войны и голодухи натерпелися мы всласть
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 105. To-night ungather’d let us leave poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Adoration
- Identity Card by Mahmoud Darwish
- What is Poetry? by Mark Olynyk
- Epigramma in Duos montes Amosclivum Et Bilboreum poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Invitation To The Redbreast by William Cowper
- Стефан Малларме – Отходит кружево опять
- Юрий Левитанский – Человек, строящий воздушные замки
- The Closet by Russell Edson
- How I saved Planet Earth by Raj Arumugam
- Василий Жуковский – Могущество, слава и благоденствие России
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (В избушке позднею порою)
- In Praise of Songs that Die by Vachel Lindsay
- The Sanctuary by Sara Teasdale
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
- Оливер Голдсмит – Пыл упований людям дан
- Оливер Голдсмит – Послание в прозе и стихах
- Оливер Голдсмит – Подношение
- Оливер Голдсмит – Песенка
- Оливер Голдсмит – Опровержение логики
- Оливер Голдсмит – Оленья туша
- Оливер Голдсмит – Каждому по заслугам
- Оливер Голдсмит – Эпитафия Неду Пардону
- Ольга Высотская – Звёздочки
- Ольга Высотская – Здравствуй, праздник
- Ольга Высотская – Я зубы стисну, губы закушу
- Ольга Высотская – Волны
- Ольга Высотская – Веселый поезд
- Ольга Высотская – Снежный кролик
- Ольга Высотская – Первые заморозки
- Ольга Высотская – Обидчивая кукушка
- Ольга Высотская – Гости
- Ольга Высотская – Ежик
- Ольга Высотская стихи: лучшие стихотворения для детей Высотской – Poetry Monster
- Ольга Высотская – Детский сад
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.