Midsummer, 1867.
We have heard many sermons, you and I,
And many more may hear,
When sitting quiet in cathedral nave,
With folded palms and faces meek and grave;-
But few like this one, dear.
We ofttimes watch together ‘fore the veil,
With reverent, gleaming eyes,
While priestly hands are busy with the folds,-
And pant to see the holy place, which holds
Life’s dreadest mysteries.
We watch weak, foolish fingers straying o’er
The broidered boss, to grasp
Vaguely at some small end of thread, and twist
And shake the glorious pattern into mist,
And leave us nought to clasp.
We watch, with eyes dilated, some strong hand
Of nerve and muscle, trace
The grand, faint outlines, erewhile undefined
To our slow earth-enfolded sense, and find
The great design-the shadow from behind-
Dawning before our face.
But seldom do we see, dear, you and I,
The pattern melt in light,
And all the shine flow out on us, uncheck’d-
With eyes of soul and not of intellect-
As we did see that night.
It was a summer-night-the sun was low,
But overlaid the sea,
And made gold-crystals of the wet sea-sand,
And drew our shadows short upon the strand
That stretched out shallowly.
It was a Sunday night-far off we heard
The solemn vesper-chime
From some grey wind-swept steeple by the shore,
Chanting “For ev-er-more! for ev-er-more!”
While the deep sea beat time.
We wandered far that night, dear, you and I,
We wandered out of reach,-
Until the golden distances grew grey,
And narrowed in the glory, as it lay
‘Mid horizon and beach.
We wandered far along the lonely waste,
Where seldom foot had trod;
The world behind us dared not to intrude-
The summer silence and the solitude
Were only filled with God.
We sat down on the sand there, you and I,
We sat down awed and dumb,
And watched the fiery circle fall and fall
Through solemn folds of purple, and the small
Soft ripples go and come.
There was not wind enough to stir the reeds
Around us, nor to curl
The sheeny, dimpled surface of the deep;
The waters murmured low, as half in sleep,
With measured swish and swirl.
Two sea-birds came and dabbled in the pools,
And cried their plaintive cry,
As their strong wings swept o’er us as we sat
(No profanation of the stillness that,
But added sanctity).
They flecked the crimson shallows with black streaks,
Low-wheeling to and fro,
Crying their bold, sweet cry, as knowing well
It was a place where God, not man, did dwell-
A father, not a foe.
*
Ah, we hear many sermons, you and I-
The poor words fall and drown;
But this, whose speech was silence, this has stirred
The stream of years,-and aye it will be heard
As when that sun went down!
A few random poems:
- Accidents by Russell Edson
- Владимир Маяковский – России
- Владимир Маяковский – Серые! К вам орем вниз мы… (РОСТА №313)
- At Bessemer by Philip Levine
- Suggested by the Cover of a Volume of Keats’s poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- America by Phillis Wheatley
- Константин Батюшков – Мщение
- Rhyme by Sylvia Plath
- Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali
- From The Cuckoo And The Nightingale by William Wordsworth
- Наум Коржавин – Песня лейб-казачьей сотни
- Иван Варавва – В закубанском лесу
- Fragments by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Маяковский – Уймется Антанта… (РОСТА №571)
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
- Paradise Lost: Book 04 poem – John Milton poems
- Paradise Lost: Book 03 poem – John Milton poems
- Paradise Lost: Book 02 poem – John Milton poems
- Paradise Lost: Book 01 poem – John Milton poems
- On Time poem – John Milton poems
- On The University Carrier Who Sickn’d In The Time Of His Vacancy, Being Forbid To Go To London, By Reason Of The Plague poem – John Milton poems
- On the Same poem – John Milton poems
- On the Religious Memory of Mrs. Catherine Thomson, my Christian Friend, Deceased Dec. 16, 1646 poem – John Milton poems
- On The New Forcers Of Conscience Under The Long Parliament poem – John Milton poems
- On The Morning Of Christs Nativity poem – John Milton poems
- On The Lord Gen. Fairfax At The Seige Of Colchester poem – John Milton poems
- On The Death Of A Fair Infant Dying Of A Cough poem – John Milton poems
- On Shakespear poem – John Milton poems
- On His Deceased Wife poem – John Milton poems
- On His Blindness poem – John Milton poems
- Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint poem – John Milton poems
- Lycidas poem – John Milton poems
- Light poem – John Milton poems
- L’Allegro poem – John Milton poems
- John Milton – John Milton Poems
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.