The Pleasure of Princes

What pleasures have great princes? These: to know

Themselves reputed mad with pride or power;

To speak few words — few words and short bring low

This ancient house, that city with flame devour;

To make old men, their father’s enemies,

Drunk on the vintage of the former age;

To have great painters show their mistresses

Naked to the succeeding time; engage

The cunning of able, treacherous ministers

To serve, despite themselves, the cause they hate,

And leave a prosperous kingdom to their heirs

Nursed by the caterpillars of the state;

To keep their spies in good men’s hearts; to read

The malice of the wise, and act betimes;

To hear the Grand Remonstrances of greed

Led by the pure; cheat justice of her crimes;

To beget worthless sons and, being old,

By starlight climb the battlements, and while

The pacing sentry hugs himself for cold,

Keep vigil like a lover, muse and smile,

And think, to see from the grim castle steep

The midnight city below rejoice and shine:

“There my great demon grumbles in his sleep

And dreams of his destruction, and of mine.”

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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 

• Afridi Love by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Adoration by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Whispering In Wattle Boughs by Adam Lindsay Gordon
• Thoras Song Ashtaroth by Adam Lindsay Gordon
• The Swimmer by Adam Lindsay Gordon
• The Sick Stockrider by Adam Lindsay Gordon
• The Last Leap by Adam Lindsay Gordon
• Gone by Adam Lindsay Gordon
• An Exiles Farewell by Adam Lindsay Gordon
• A Song Of Autumn by Adam Lindsay Gordon
• A Dedication by Adam Lindsay Gordon
• Medical Ethics by Fledermaus
• Facebook by Fledermaus
• Vain by Adah Isaacs Menken
• Myself by Adah Isaacs Menken
• My Heritage by Adah Isaacs Menken
• Miserimus by Adah Isaacs Menken
• Memory by Adah Isaacs Menken
• Karazah Karl by Adah Isaacs Menken
• Judith by Adah Isaacs Menken

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.

 

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