Here, in her elbow chair, she sits
A soul alert, alive,
A poor old body shrunk and bent-
The queen-bee of the hive.
But hives of bees and hives of men
Obey their several laws;
No fiercely-loving filial throng
This mother-head adores.
This bringer of world-wealth, whereof
None may compute the worth,
Is possibly of no account
To anyone on earth.
Her cap and spectacles, that mean
Dim eyes and scanty hairs,
The humble symbols of her state-
The only crown she wears.
Lacking a kingdom and a court,
A relic of the past,
Almost a cumberer of the ground-
That is our queen at last.
But still not wholly without place,
Nor quite bereft of power;
A useful stopgap-a resource
In many a troubled hour.
She darns the stockings, keeps the house,
The nurseless infant tends,
While the young matrons and the men
Pursue their various ends-
Too keen-set on their great affairs,
Or little plays and pranks,
The things and people of their world,
To give her thought or thanks-
The children on whom all her thought
And time and love were spent
Through half a century of years!
Yet is she well content.
The schooling of those fiery years,
It has not been for nought;
A large philosophy of life
Has self-less service taught.
The outlook from the heights attained
By climbings sore and slow
Discovers worlds of wisdom, hid
From clearest eyes below.
So calmly, in her elbow chair,
Forgotten and alone,
She knits and dreams, and sometimes sighs
But never makes a moan.
Still dwelling with her brood unseen-
Ghosts of a bygone day-
The precious daughter in her grave,
The dear son gone astray-
And others, to whom once she stood
As only light and law,
The near and living, and yet lost,
That need her love no more.
Watching their joyous setting forth
To mingle with their kind,
With scarce a pang, with ne’er a grudge,
At being left behind.
“Let them be young, as I was young,
And happy while they may” . . . .
A dog that waits the night in peace
Since it has had its day.
A few random poems:
- Нина Воронель – Бабий стих
- Степан Щипачев – Свет звезды
- Яков Полонский – Поцелуй
- Stepping Westward by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Высоцкий – Татуировка
- When Love Is Over
- Sonnet IX. Keen, Fitful Gusts Are poem – John Keats poems
- “I Sometimes Think” by Thomas Hardy
- Владимир Лифшиц – Вступление
- Upper Lambourne poem – John Betjeman poems
- Braga by Walid Saba
- The Death Bed by Thomas Hood
- Gold! by Thomas Hood
- PLEADING by Satish Verma
- The Farmer Of Tilsbury Vale by William Wordsworth
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
- Кондратий Рылеев – О милый друг, как внятен голос твой
- Кондратий Рылеев – Не вчера ли в хороводе
- Кондратий Рылеев – Н. М. Тевяшовой на предложение ее, дабы я написал стихи на Надежду
- Кондратий Рылеев – Мне тошно здесь, как на чужбине
- Кондратий Рылеев – Меня пленяли наши деды
- Кондратий Рылеев – Людмила
- Кондратий Рылеев – Любовь к отчизне
- Кондратий Рылеев – Луна
- Кондратий Рылеев – Князю Смоленскому
- Кондратий Рылеев – Как солнце ни блестит и как оно ни светит
- Кондратий Рылеев – К портрету
- Кондратий Рылеев – К Надежде
- Кондратий Рылеев – К N. N. (У вас в гостях бывать накладно)
- Кондратий Рылеев – К N. N. (Когда душа изнемогала)
- Кондратий Рылеев – К Фролову
- Кондратий Рылеев – К Делии
- Кондратий Рылеев – Извинение перед Н.М. Тевяшовой
- Кондратий Рылеев – Из письма к Булгарину
- Кондратий Рылеев – Гусь и змия
- Иван Крылов – Ода, выбранная из псалма 71-го
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.