Ay, many and many a year’s gone by,
Since the dawn of that day in spring,
When we met in the pine-woods, Harry and I,
And he gave me this golden ring.
I had lovers in plenty, of high degree,
Who wooed in my father’s hall;
But none were so noble and brave as he,
Though he was the scorn’d of all.
On the soft, green grass, where the shadows lay,
All fleck’d with the sun and dew,
With a ring and a kiss did we seal, that day,
Our vow to be leal and true.
‘Twas a life-long vow;-but they did not know-
And they thought not of love or pain;-
We met just once in the sleet and snow-
We were never to meet again!
He was sent away o’er the blank, wide sea,
And I, with my hopes and fears,
Had never a message to comfort me
For over a score of years.
They laugh’d at my heart, they paraded my hand,
But I answer’d them, cold and grim-
“If Harry ne’er comes to his native land,
They shall only belong to him.”
At last came a tale from the battle-field;-
And they were not scornful now.
The sentence of exile might be repealed-
They would honour our plighted vow!
They told how my Harry, like olden knights,
Had fought for his land and Queen;
Fought hard and well on the Alma heights,
Where the deadliest strife was seen.
They told how he fell in the fire and smoke,
And they gave me his things to keep;
They wonder’d why I never cried or spoke,-
But it was too late to weep.

A few random poems:
- Greek Light
- Down on the Shore by William Allingham
- Marine Snow At Mid-Depths And Down by Thomas Lux
- Epigram : The Cottager And His Landlord. A Fable (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper
- Fleckno, an English Priest at Rome poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Ballad on Mr. Heron’s Election—No. 2 by Robert Burns
- Sonnet 17: Who will believe my verse in time to come by William Shakespeare
- To A Friend Who Sent Me Some Roses poem – John Keats poems
- What’s wrong with volunteering?
- Angels by Russell Edson
- Before you knew you owned it poem – Alice Walker
- Lifetime Of Death by Steve Sant
- The Beam In Grenley Church by William Barnes
- Алексей Плещеев – Ее мне жаль
- A Carol of Harvest, for 1867 by Walt Whitman
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
- Владимир Костров – В керосиновой лампе
- Владимир Костров – Утро в Заборье
- Владимир Костров – У них в делах анархия и жуть
- Владимир Костров – То в ночи она вспыхнет, как спичка
- Владимир Костров – Сверстницам
- Владимир Костров – Старый сюжет
- Владимир Костров – Срок настал, московская богема
- Владимир Костров – Смуту и безверье не приемль
- Владимир Костров – Романс
- Владимир Костров – Просыпаюсь от сердечной боли
- Владимир Костров – Поток ушедших лет
- Владимир Костров – Поплачь, любимая, поплачь
- Владимир Костров – Полон взгляд тихой боли и страха
- Владимир Костров – Поэтессе
- Владимир Костров – Письмо в никуда
- Владимир Костров – Памяти Николая Анциферова
- Владимир Костров – Отшумели сады, отзвенела вода
- Владимир Костров – Новогодняя ночь
- Владимир Костров – Не трогайте жанр
- Владимир Костров – Не банкира, не детей Арбата
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.