A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)
To see the clouds his spirit yearned toward so
Over new mountains piled and unploughed waves,
Back of old-storied spires and architraves
To watch Arcturus rise or Fomalhaut,
And roused by street-cries in strange tongues when day
Flooded with gold some domed metropolis,
Between new towers to waken and new bliss
Spread on his pillow in a wondrous way:
These were his joys. Oft under bulging crates,
Coming to market with his morning load,
The peasant found him early on his road
To greet the sunrise at the city-gates,—
There where the meadows waken in its rays,
Golden with mist, and the great roads commence,
And backward, where the chimney-tops are dense,
Cathedral-arches glimmer through the haze.
White dunes that breaking show a strip of sea,
A plowman and his team against the blue
Swiss pastures musical with cowbells, too,
And poplar-lined canals in Picardie,
And coast-towns where the vultures back and forth
Sail in the clear depths of the tropic sky,
And swallows in the sunset where they fly
Over gray Gothic cities in the north,
And the wine-cellar and the chorus there,
The dance-hall and a face among the crowd,—
Were all delights that made him sing aloud
For joy to sojourn in a world so fair.
Back of his footsteps as he journeyed fell
Range after range; ahead blue hills emerged.
Before him tireless to applaud it surged
The sweet interminable spectacle.
And like the west behind a sundown sea
Shone the past joys his memory retraced,
And bright as the blue east he always faced
Beckoned the loves and joys that were to be.
From every branch a blossom for his brow
He gathered, singing down Life’s flower-lined road,
And youth impelled his spirit as he strode
Like winged Victory on the galley’s prow.
That Loveliness whose being sun and star,
Green Earth and dawn and amber evening robe,
That lamp whereof the opalescent globe
The season’s emulative splendors are,
That veiled divinity whose beams transpire
From every pore of universal space,
As the fair soul illumes the lovely face—
That was his guest, his passion, his desire.
His heart the love of Beauty held as hides
One gem most pure a casket of pure gold.
It was too rich a lesser thing to bold;
It was not large enough for aught besides.
A few random poems:
- Николай Заболоцкий – Читайте, деревья, стихи Гезиода
- Living In Sin
- Misery And Splendor by Robert Hass
- Do You Remember Once
- A character of it’s own by Sylvan Lightbourne
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “Irish Melodies”. 58. Farewell! – But Whenever You Welcome the Hour. Томас Мур.
- Epitaph on “Wee Johnnie” by Robert Burns
- Владимир Британишский – Снились двое товарищей по Салехарду
- A Cry by Sara Teasdale
- White and Green poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Такахама Кёси – Мацумуси пищит
- The Captured Goddess poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Высоцкий – Заповедник
- Ольга Седакова – Ни темной старины заветные преданья
- Яков Полонский – Последний вздох
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
- Robert Burns: Sappho Redivivus: Fragment
- Robert Burns: Pegasus At Wanlockhead:
- Robert Burns: Ode, Sacred To The Memory Of Mrs. Oswald Of Auchencruive:
- Robert Burns: Robin Shure In Hairst:
- Robert Burns: Versicles On Sign-Posts :
- Robert Burns: The Henpecked Husband:
- Robert Burns: Elegy On The Year 1788:
- Robert Burns: The Poet’s Progress : A Poem In Embryo
- Robert Burns: Written In Friars Carse Hermitage: On Nithside
- Robert Burns: The Parting Kiss:
- Robert Burns: My Bonie Mary:
- Robert Burns: Auld Lang Syne:
- Robert Burns: It Is Na, Jean, Thy Bonie Face:
- Robert Burns: I Reign In Jeanie’s Bosom:
- Robert Burns: The Fall Of The Leaf:
- Robert Burns: A Mother’s Lament For the Death of Her Son.:
- Robert Burns: O, Were I On Parnassus Hill:
- Robert Burns: The Day Returns:
- Robert Burns: Epistle To Robert Graham, Esq., Of Fintry: Requesting a Favour
- Robert Burns: The Fete Champetre:
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
Alan Seeger (1888-1916) was an American war poet who fought and died in World War I during the Battle of the Somme, serving in the French Foreign Legion. Seeger was the brother of Charles Seeger, a noted American pacifist and musicologist and the uncle of folk musician, Pete Seeger.