Nay, ask me not. I would not dare pretend
To constant passion and a life-long trust.
They will desert thee, if indeed they must.
How can we guess what Destiny will send-
Smiles of fair fortune, or black storms to rend
What even now is shaken by a gust?
The fire will burn, or it will die in dust.
We cannot tell until the final end.
And never vow was forged that could confine
Aught but the body of the thing whereon
Its pledge was stamped. The inner soul divine,
That thinks of going, is already gone.
When faith and love need bolts upon the door,
Faith is not faith, and love abides no more.
A few random poems:
- A Man Young And Old: IX. The Secrets Of The Old by William Butler Yeats
- You Will Forget! by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Umbrella by Mike Yuan
- The Usurpation
- The Callous Statues by Shahida Latif
- Elegy II. On The Death Of The University Beadle At Cambridge (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper
- When I Came Last to Ludlow poem – A. E. Housman
- Николай Языков – Песня (Когда умру, смиренно совершите)
- Bridge-Guard in the Karroo by Rudyard Kipling
- Epitaph On An Army of Mercenaries poem – A. E. Housman
- The Countess Cathleen In Paradise by William Butler Yeats
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 02 – part 01 by Torquato Tasso
- The Madness Of King Goll by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Британишский – Аркадия
- The Gardener LIX: O Woman by Rabindranath Tagore
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
- The Story Of Our Lives by Mark Strand
- The Self and the Mulberry by Marvin Bell
- Your Poems on My Patio by Martina Reisz Newberry
- The Room by Mark Strand
- Yesterday’s Mishaps by Mary Etta Metcalf
- The River Has Its Memories by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Yes Dear by Mary Etta Metcalf
- The River by Mark Olynyk
- Words Unspoken by Mark Olynyk
- The Remains by Mark Strand
- Woman With Parasol by Martin Willitts Jr.
- The Poetic Principle by Mark Olynyk
- Why Write? by Mark Olynyk
- The Other Side of Panic by Martina Reisz Newberry
- Where Have We All Gone by Mary Etta Metcalf
- The joyful things in life by Martin Smith
- What is Poetry? by Mark Olynyk
- The Frantic by Mark Miller
- Wednesday by Marvin Bell
- The End of the Argument by Martina Reisz Newberry
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

Ada Cambridge (1844 – 1926), also known as Ada Cross, was an English-born Australian author and poetess. She wrote more than 25 works of fiction, three volumes of poetry and two autobiographical works.