Is it a will-o’-the-wisp, or is dawn breaking,
That our horizon wears so strange a hue?
Is it but one more dream, or are we waking
To find that dreams, at last, are coming true?
Aye, surely, in that golden glimmer streaking
The cloudy sky-line of the life of man
We see the blessed day he has been seeking
In all directions since the world began.
Sign to each struggling and exhausted nation
Of hope fulfilled, redemption and release;
Sign of the end of needless tribulation,
And the beginning of the reign of Peace.
Country with country, brother with his brother,
Content to share, and not to grab and steal;
Ceasing the wild-beast battle, each with other,
To work in concert for the common weal.
No class-strife more, neighbour with differing neighbour;
No waste or want, to breed the plague or crime;
No soul-debasing pomp and sordid labour,
No wars, no famines, in the coming time!
But swords of slaughter-valour and brains and money-
Turned into ploughshares for the lands redeemed,
To fill men’s homes, as full as hives of honey,
With wealth unknown and happiness undreamed.
Great Art no more the plaything of the idle,
But nurse and minister to every need;
Nature no longer cowed with bit and bridle;
Conscience enfranchised and Religion freed.
All round our darksome isle the tide encroaches,
Distant and dim as yet, but spreading fast.
The reign of Love and Liberty approaches!
The heirs are coming to their own at last!
Hark! What was that? The vanquished devil howling,
With guns and bombs, for brother devil’s blood?
The primal savage out again-befouling
All this fair promise with his primal mud?
Alas! So soon to see our lovely morning
Back in the hopeless night whence it arose,
And have no time to wait another dawning!
O Lord, how long-how long . . . . . . . .
A few random poems:
- Владимир Высоцкий – Сорняков, когда созреют
- Ольга Берггольц – Письмо из Ленинграда
- Robert Burns: The Bonie Lad That’s Far Awa:
- Спиридон Дрожжин – Первая борозда
- The Spires Of Oxford by Winifred Mary Letts
- The Star by Sara Teasdale
- The Elms poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Chant of the Indignant of the World by Sunil Sharma
- Robert Burns: The Whistle -A Ballad:
- Start Growing by Rixa White
- The Dragon & The Undying by Siegfried Sassoon
- To Eva Descending The Stair by Sylvia Plath
- Новелла Матвеева – Иней
- The Epic of Jack and Jill by Robby Charters
- Владимир Маяковский – Нормализованная гайка (РОСТА № 171)
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
- Алексей Толстой – Рука Алкида тяжела
- Алексей Толстой – Рондо
- Алексей Толстой – Растянулся на просторе
- Алексей Толстой – Пустой дом
- Алексей Толстой – Пусть тот, чья честь не без укора
- Алексей Толстой – Против течения
- Алексей Толстой – Прогулка с подругой жизни
- Алексей Ржевский – Сонет, три разные системы заключающий
- Алексей Ржевский – Рондо (И всякий так живет)
- Алексей Ржевский – Рок все теперь свершил, надежды больше нет
- Алексей Ржевский – Прости, Москва
- Алексей Ржевский – Портрет
- Алексей Ржевский – Ода Императору Петру Феодоровичу
- Алексей Ржевский – Как я стал знать взор твой
- Алексей Ржевский – Долго ль прельщаться
- Алексей Ржевский стихи: читать все стихотворения, поэмы поэта Алексей Ржевский – Поэзия на Poetry Monster
- Алексей Плещеев – Знакомые звуки, чудесные звуки
- Алексей Плещеев – Ёлка в школе
- Алексей Плещеев – Весна (Песни жаворонков снова)
- Алексей Плещеев – Весна
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.