I.
Pindar is imitable by none;
The phoenix Pindar is a vast species alone.
Whoe’er but Daedalus with waxen wings could fly
And neither sink too low nor soar too high?
What could he who followed claim
But of vain boldness the unhappy fame,
And by his fall a sea to name?
Pindar’s unnavigable song,
Like a swollen flood from some steep mountain, pours along;
The ocean meets with such a voice
From his enlarged mouth as drowns the ocean’s noise.
II.
So Pindar does new words and figures roll
Down his impetuous dithyrambic tide,
Which in no channel deigns to abide,
Which neither banks nor dikes control.
Whether the immortal gods he sings
In a no less immortal strain,
Or the great acts of god-descended kings,
Who in his numbers still survive and reign,
Each rich embroidered line,
Which their triumphant brows around
By his sacred hand is bound,
Does all their starry diadems outshine.
III.
Whether at Pisa’s race he please
To carve in polished verse the conquerors’ images,
Whether the swift, the skillful, or the strong
Be crowned in his nimble, artful, vigorous song,
Whether some brave young man’s untimely fate
In words worth dying for he celebrate,
Such mournful and such pleasing words
As joy to his mother’s and his mistress’ grief affords,
He bids him live and grow in fame;
Among the stars he sticks his name;
The grave can but the dross of him devour,
So small is death’s, so great the poet’s power.
Lo, how the obsequious wind and swelling air
The Theban swan does upwards bear
Into the walks of clouds, where he does play,
And with extended wings opens his liquid way,
Whilst, alas, my timorous Muse
Unambitious tracks pursues;
Does, with weak, unballast wings,
About the mossy brooks and springs,
About the trees’ new-blossomed heads,
About the gardens’ painted beds,
About the fields and flowery meads,
And all inferior beauteous things,
Like the laborious bee,
For little drops of honey flee,
And there with humble sweets contents her industry.
A few random poems:
- Your Poems on My Patio by Martina Reisz Newberry
- Black Cat by Rainer Maria Rilke
- The Secret Rose by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Высоцкий – Войны и голодухи натерпелися мы всласть
- Олег Бундур – В саду
- Sir Gawaine And The Green Knight by Yvor Winters
- Владимир Степанов – Праздник сентября
- On A Celebrated Event In Ancient History by William Wordsworth
- One’s-Self I Sing. by Walt Whitman
- The Red Earth of Kupungarri by Nicole M Nugent
- The Benefactors Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- Шекспир – Мои глаза в тебя не влюблены – Сонет 141
- Obligation poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Further Instructions poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Somebody Has To by Shel Silverstein
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
- Address to the Toothache by Robert Burns
- Address to the shade of Thomson by Robert Burns
- Address to the Deil by Robert Burns
- Address to Edinburgh by Robert Burns
- Address to a Haggis by Robert Burns
- Address spoken by Miss Fontenelle by Robert Burns
- Adam Armour’s Prayer by Robert Burns
- A Winter Night by Robert Burns
- A Vision by Robert Burns
- A Tippling Ballad—When Princes and Prelates, etc. by Robert Burns
- A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
- A Prayer under the Pressure of Violent Anguish by Robert Burns
- A Prayer in the Prospect of Death by Robert Burns
- A Poet’s Welcome to his Love-Begotten Daughter by Robert Burns
- A New Psalm for the Chapel of Kilmarnock by Robert Burns
- A Mother’s Lament for her Son’s Death by Robert Burns
- A Grace before Dinner by Robert Burns
- A Grace after Dinner by Robert Burns
- News, lassies, news (Song) by Robert Burns
- Mally’s meek, Mally’s sweet (Song) by Robert Burns
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.