A poem by Alan Dugan
Because of the unaccountable spirit of the troops
oh we were marched as we were never marched before
and flanked them off from home. Stupid Meade
was after them, head on to tail, but we convinced
him, finally, to flank, flank, cut off their head.
He finally understood, the idiot, and got a fort
named after him, for wisdom. He probably thought
Lee would conquer Washington from Appomattox
if he, Meade, should march his infantry behind
him, Lee. Ah well, the unaccountable spirit of the troops
triumphed, Meade got his fort, Grant got his presidency,
Sherman got his motto, what was it? War is heck?, Lee got a military school
for the education of young Southern gentlemen, and the Union
Army was taken over by Southern noncommissioned officers
in the wars against the Indians to the west. I know all
about this, I know who won, I served under them
for three hundred and fifty years in World War II,
just long enough not to be called a rookie but a veteran,
and realized the rank and order of my enemies:
first, the West Point officers; second, the red-neck sergeants;
third, the Nazis and perhaps the Japanese. I won
all of these wars as a private soldier, for a while,
and am happy to have done so: without me
Hitler and Hirohito would he ruling the world
instead of America and Russia, but I still will not
drive through Georgia with New York license plates.
A few random poems:
- Untitled #1 by Nijole Miliauskaite
- The Call Of The Far — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Kiss Me Again by St Antoine de la Vuadi
- Валерий Брюсов – Фламандцам
- The Fading Flower by Will McKendree Carleton
- A Party Of Lovers poem – John Keats poems
- Outsong in the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
- The People by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Высоцкий – Вот раньше жизнь
- Hardcastle Crags by Sylvia Plath
- In January by Ted Kooser
- Алексей Толстой – Уж ласточки, кружась, над крышей щебетали
- Владимир Британишский – Как из конного двора
- Владимир Высоцкий – Наши добрые зрители
- From The Flats. by Sidney Lanier
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 Licorice Fields at Pontefract poem – John Betjeman poems
- The Last Laugh poem – John Betjeman poems
- The Irish Unionist’s farewell to Greta Hellastrom in 1922 poem – John Betjeman poems
- The Hon. Sec. poem – John Betjeman poems
- The Cottage Hospital poem – John Betjeman poems
- Sun and Fun poem – John Betjeman poems
- South London Sketch poem – John Betjeman poems
- Slough poem – John Betjeman poems
- Senex poem – John Betjeman poems
- Seaside Golf poem – John Betjeman poems
- On a Portrait of a Deaf Man poem – John Betjeman poems
- Myfanwy poem – John Betjeman poems
- Mortality poem – John Betjeman poems
- Middlesex poem – John Betjeman poems
- Meditation on the A30 poem – John Betjeman poems
- Loneliness poem – John Betjeman poems
- Ireland With Emily poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- Inexpensive Progress poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- In Westminster Abbey poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- How To Get On In Society poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
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
Alan Dugan (1923 – 2003) an American poet, a contemporary classic of American poetry.