Thou ‘adst to my soul no title or pretence;
I was mine own, and free,
Till I had given myself to thee;
But thou hast kept me slave and prisoner since.
Well, since so insolent thou ‘rt grown,
Fond tyrant! I’ll depose thee from thy throne;
Such outrages must not admitted be
In an elective monarchy.
Part of my heart by gift did to thee fall;
My country, kindred, and my best
Acquaintance, were to share the rest;
But thou, their covetous neighbour, drav’st out all:
Nay more; thou mak’st me worship thee,
And wouldst the rule of my religion be:
Did ever tyrant claim such power as you,
To be both emperor and pope too?
The public miseries, and my private fate,
Deserve some tears; but greedy thou
(Insatiate maid!) wilt not allow
That I one drop from thee should alienate:
Nor wilt thou grant my sins a part,
Though the sole cause of most of them thou art;
Counting my tears thy tribute and thy due,
Since first mine eyes I gave to you.
Thou all my joys and all my hopes dost claim;
Thou ragest like a fire in me,
Converting all things into thee;
Nought can resist, or not encrease the flame:
Nay, every grief and every fear
Thou dost devour, unless thy stamp it bear:
Thy presence, like the crowned basilisk’s breath,
All other serpents puts to death.
As men in hell are from diseases free,
So from all other ills am I;
Free from their known formality:
But all pains eminently lie in thee!
Alas, alas! I hope in vain
My conquer’d soul from out thine hands to gain;
Since all the natives there thou ‘ast overthrown,
And planted garrisons of thine own.
A few random poems:
- Smoke Off by Shel Silverstein
- Ольга Ермолаева – В кирзовых сапогах скользить по горной глине
- A Ballad of Footmen poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Burns: Second Epistle To Robert Graham, ESQ., Of Fintry:
- Sonnet 135: Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy will by William Shakespeare
- In This Cul De Sac
- Sonnet 17 poem – John Milton poems
- Жан де Лафонтен – Шершни и Пчелы
- Inscription to Chloris by Robert Burns
- Владимир Маяковский – Реклама журнала “Огонек”
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (В избушке позднею порою)
- Олег Бундур – Праздник встречи
- Карл Сэндберг – Молитва стали
- Шекспир – День без тебя казался ночью – Сонет 43
- 10 Things I Do Every Day by Ted Berrigan
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
- Of Three Or Four In The Room by Yehuda Amichai
- Near The Wall Of A House by Yehuda Amichai
- My Father by Yehuda Amichai
- My Child Wafts Peace by Yehuda Amichai
- Memorial Day For The War Dead by Yehuda Amichai
- Love Of Jerusalem by Yehuda Amichai
- Jerusalem by Yehuda Amichai
- If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem by Yehuda Amichai
- I Want To Die In My Own Bed by Yehuda Amichai
- I Know A Man by Yehuda Amichai
- I Have Become Very Hairy by Yehuda Amichai
- I Don’t Know If History Repeats Itself by Yehuda Amichai
- Half The People In The World by Yehuda Amichai
- God Has Pity On Kindergarten Children by Yehuda Amichai
- God Full Of Mercy by Yehuda Amichai
- Forgetting Someone by Yehuda Amichai
- Ein Yahav by Yehuda Amichai
- Do Not Accept by Yehuda Amichai
- Before by Yehuda Amichai
- And We Shall Not Get Excited by Yehuda Amichai
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.