The Bayadere

A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)

Flaked, drifting clouds hide not the full moon’s rays

More than her beautiful bright limbs were hid

By the light veils they burned and blushed amid,

Skilled to provoke in soft, lascivious ways,

And there was invitation in her voice

And laughing lips and wonderful dark eyes,

As though above the gates of Paradise

Fair verses bade, Be welcome and rejoice!

O’er rugs where mottled blue and green and red

Blent in the patterns of the Orient loom,

Like a bright butterfly from bloom to bloom,

She floated with delicious arms outspread.

There was no pose she took, no move she made,

But all the feverous, love-envenomed flesh

Wrapped round as in the gladiator’s mesh

And smote as with his triple-forked blade.

I thought that round her sinuous beauty curled

Fierce exhalations of hot human love, —

Around her beauty valuable above

The sunny outspread kingdoms of the world;

Flowing as ever like a dancing fire

Flowed her belled ankles and bejewelled wrists,

Around her beauty swept like sanguine mists

The nimbus of a thousand hearts’ desire.

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Poems in English 

• On A Goldfinch, Starved To Death In His Cage by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On A Fowler, By Isidorus by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On A Battered Beauty (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• On A Bath, By Plato by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 9: The Contrite Heart by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 7: Vanity of the World by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 68: Light Shining Out Of Darkness by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 67: Longing To Be With Christ by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 66: I Will Praise The Lord At All Times by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 64: Praise For Faith by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 63: Not Of Works by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 61: The Narrow Way by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 60: Abuse Of The Gospel by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 59: A Living And A Dead Faith by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 57: The New Convert by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 56: Hatred Of Sin by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 55: The Heart Healed And Changed By Mercy by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 54: Love Constraining To Obedience by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 53: My Soul Thirsteth For God by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 52: For The Poor by William Cowper by William Cowper

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

Doska or the Board – write anything

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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.

 

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