Dreams Beauty

Visions of Beauty, of Light, and of Love,

Born in the soul of a Dream,

Lost, like the phantom-bird under the dove,

When she flies over a stream-

Come ye through portals where angel wings droop,

Moved by the heaven of sleep?

Or, are ye mockeries, crazing a soul,

Doomed with its waking to weep?

I could believe ye were shadows of earth,

Echoes of hopes that are vain,

But for the music ye bring to my heart,

Waking its sunshine again.

And ye are fleeting. All vainly I strive

Beauties like thine to portray;

Forth from my pencil the bright picture starts,

And-ye have faded away.

Like to a bird that soars up from the spray,

When we would fetter its wing;

Like to the song that spurns Memory’s grasp

When the voice yearneth to sing;

Like the cloud-glory that sunset lights up,

When the storm bursts from its height;

Like the sheet-silver that rolls on the sea,

When it is touched by the night-

Bright, evanescent, ye come and are gone,

Visions of mystical birth;

Art that could paint you was never vouchsafed

Unto the children of earth.

Yet in my soul there’s a longing to tell

All you have seemed unto me,

That unto others a glimpse of the skies

You in their sorrow might be.

Vain is the wish. Better hope to describe

All that the spirit desires,

When through a cloud of vague fancies and schemes

Flash the Promethean fires.

Let me then think of ye, Visions of Light,

Not as the tissue of dreams,

But as realities destined to be

Bright in Futurity’s beams.

Ideals formed by a standard of earth

Sink at Reality’s shrine

Into the human and weak like ourselves,

Losing the essence divine;

But the fair pictures that fall from above

On the heart’s mirror sublime

Carry a signature written in tints,

Bright with the future of time.

And the heart, catching them, yieldeth a spark

Under each stroke of the rod-

Sparks that fly upward and light the New Life,

Burning an incense to God!

Poetry Monster – Home

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 

• Жан де Лафонтен – Голубь и Муравей by Jean de La Fontaine
• Жан де Лафонтен – Фортуна и Дитя by Jean de La Fontaine
• Жан де Лафонтен – Эзопово объяснение одного завещания by Jean de La Fontaine
• Жан де Лафонтен – Две Козы by Jean de La Fontaine
• Жан де Лафонтен – Два Мула by Jean de La Fontaine
• Жан де Лафонтен – Дровосек и Меркурий by Jean de La Fontaine
• Жан де Лафонтен – Дафнис и Алцимадура by Jean de La Fontaine
• Жан де Лафонтен – Человек и его Изображение by Jean de La Fontaine
• Жан де Лафонтен – Безумец и Мудрец by Jean de La Fontaine
• Жан де Лафонтен – Астролог, упавший в колодец by Jean de La Fontaine
• Жан де Лафонтен – Амур и Безумие by Jean de La Fontaine
• Жан Расин – Решенье принято, час перемены пробил by Jean Racine
• Жан Расин – Когда мы вышли из Трезенских врат by Jean Racine
• Жан Расин – Гофолия by Jean Racine
• Жан Расин – Британик by Jean Racine
• Жан Расин – Андромаха by Jean Racine
• Зинаида Александрова – Зимняя песенка by Зинаида Александрова
• Зинаида Александрова – Волчонок by Зинаида Александрова
• Зинаида Александрова – Ветер на речке by Зинаида Александрова
• Зинаида Александрова – Венок by Зинаида Александрова

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.

 

Parallel Translations of Poetry

Poems by Author and Category

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