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:
- Владимир Маяковский – Гевлок Вильсон
- Владимир Корнилов – Халабуда
- The Poetry That Is Life
- Dead On Arrival by Preethi Saravanakumar
- Implosions
- In Imitation of E. of Dorset : Artemisia poem – Alexander Pope
- The Chronicle
- The Perfect Sacrifice by William Cowper
- “Young England–What Is Then Become Of Old” by William Wordsworth
- The rainy Pleiads wester poem – A. E. Housman
- The Bankrupt Peace-Maker by Vachel Lindsay
- Владимир Маяковский – Трудовая взаимопомощь инвентарем (Агитплакаты)
- Insights Into History, Culture, & Creativity of Sri Lanka – Explore the Cultural Triangle
- Владимир Британишский – Старая Рига
- Swift’s Epitaph by William Butler Yeats
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
- Olney Hymn 50: The Christian by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 5: Jehovah-Shalom: The Lord Send Peace by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 48: Joy And Peace In Believing by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 47: The Hidden Life by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 45: The Happy Change by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 43: Prayer For Patience by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 40: Peace After A Storm by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 4: Jehovah-Nissi: The Lord My Banner by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 39: The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 38: Looking Upwards In A Storm by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 36: Afflictions Sanctified By The Word by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 34: The Waiting Soul by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 33: Seeking The Beloved by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 32: The Shining Light by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 31: On The Death Of A Minister by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 30: The Light And Glory Of The Word by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 3: Jehovah-Rophi: I Am the Lord That Healeth Thee by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 29: Exhortation To Prayer by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 28: Jesus Hasting To Suffer by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 27: Welcome To The Table by William Cowper
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.