The Window Overlooking The Harbour

A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)

Sad is the Evening: all the level sand

Lies left and lonely, while the restless sea,

Tired of the green caresses of the land,

Withdraws into its own infinity.

But still more sad this white and chilly Dawn

Filling the vacant spaces of the sky,

While little winds blow here and there forlorn

And all the stars, weary of shining, die.

And more than desolate, to wake, to rise,

Leaving the couch, where softly sleeping still,

What through the past night made my heaven, lies;

And looking out across the window sill

See, from the upper window’s vantage ground,

Mankind slip into harness once again,

And wearily resume his daily round

Of love and labour, toil and strife and pain.

How the sad thoughts slip back across the night:

The whole thing seems so aimless and so vain.

What use the raptures, passion and delight,

Burnt out; as though they could not wake again.

The worn-out nerves and weary brain repeat

The question: Whither all these passions tend;–

This curious thirst, so painful and so sweet,

So fierce, so very short-lived, to what end?

Even, if seeking for ourselves, the Race,

The only immortality we know,–

Even if from the flower of our embrace

Some spark should kindle, or some fruit should grow,

What were the use? the gain, to us or it,

That we should cause another You or Me,–

Another life, from our light passion lit,

To suffer like ourselves awhile and die.

What aim, what end indeed? Our being runs

In a closed circle. All we know or see

Tends to assure us that a thousand Suns,

Teeming perchance with life, have ceased to be.

Ah, the grey Dawn seems more than desolate,

And the past night of passion worse than waste,

Love but a useless flower, that soon or late,

Turns to a fruit with bitter aftertaste.

Youth, even Youth, seems futile and forlorn

While the new day grows slowly white above.

Pale and reproachful comes the chilly Dawn

After the fervour of a night of love.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 

• Here’s to the Mice! by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• On the Road to Nowhere by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Heart of God by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• On the Garden Wall by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• On the Building of Springfield by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• On Reading Omar Khayyam by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Niagara by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• My Lady in Her White Silk Shawl by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Michaelangelo by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Mark Twain and Joan of Arc by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Love and Law by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Look You, I’ll Go Pray by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Lincoln by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• King Arthur’s Men Have Come Again by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Incense by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• In Praise of Songs that Die by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• In Memory of a Child by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• I Went Down into the Desert by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• I Heard Immanuel Singing by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• How Samson Bore Away the Gates of Gaza by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works