In The Country – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
As close is the earth beneath my feet As are close to me The fruits, flowers and the air and water. Here I love him too As I love the songs of birds The murmur of streams The mellowness around The light of dawn and the greeneries of trees. Here I find him beautiful As […]
I Found A Few Old Letters by Rabindranath Tagore
I found a few old letters of mine carefully hidden in thy box-a few small toys for thy memory to play with. With a timorous heart thou didst try to steal these trifles from the turbulent stream of time which washes away planets and stars, and didst say, “These are only mine!” Alas, there is […]
I Cast My Net Into The Sea by Rabindranath Tagore
I dragged up from the dark abyss things of strange aspect and strange beauty — some shone like a smile, some glistened like tears, and some were flushed like the cheeks of a bride. When with the day’s burden I went home, my love was sitting in the garden idly tearing the leaves of a […]
Gift Of The Great – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
Those whose minds are wrought The base of whose existence becomes shaky Those who are listless Let them listen – Don’t ever forget yourselves. Let you meet every day Those who have won over death Those who have kept their torch aflame Above whatever is mean and small If you make them dwarf The sin […]
From Afar by Rabindranath Tagore
From a distance I watch him. With the dust and the water, With the fruit and the flower, With the All he is rushing forward. He is always on the surface, Tossed by the waves and dancing to the rhythm Of joy and suffering. The least loss makes him suffer, The least wound hurts him– […]
Dream Girl by Rabindranath Tagore
You are also the creation of men From the core of their heart They have endowed you with charm. With golden threads of similes Your dress the poet weaves. To immortalize your image The painter puts on your face An ever fresh glow. So many colours, scents and costumes – From the seas come pearls […]
Cruel Kindness by Rabindranath Tagore
But you have saved me denying. All through my life This your cruel kindness Has filled my being. The things you gave me without asking – This sky full of light This body, this soul and this mind Saving me ever from too much craving For these great gifts you are making me fit. The […]
Compensation by Rabindranath Tagore
Everybody is blaming me for you! They are saying, ‘In all his songs Her picture he is painting In her ears He is singing only love songs Because of his addiction He is composing Frivolous words into poesy And all over the land at the top of his voice He is raving and shouting.’ My […]
Birth Story by Rabindranath Tagore
‘From where did I come, Me where did you find?’ Holding him tight in an embrace In tears and laughter The mum replies, ‘You were in my mind As my deepest wish. You were with me When I was a child And played with my dolls. When worshiping Shiva in the morning I made and […]
At The Last Watch by Rabindranath Tagore
That pettiest of gifts, Is but a sugar-coating over neglect. Any passerby can make a gift of it To a street beggar, Only to forget the moment the first corner is turned. I had not hoped for anything more that day. You left during the last watch of night. I had hoped you would say […]
At The End Of The Day by Rabindranath Tagore
At the end of the day Wanly smiling The dying sun will look at my face Bidding me its last farewell. The flute will play by the side of the way The cattle will graze on the banks of the river In the courtyard the children will play And the birds will sing – Still […]
And In Wonder And Amazement I Sing by Rabindranath Tagore
The universe is full of life Among all these I have found a place And in wonder and amazement I sing. The world is swayed By eternity’s rushing tide Rising and falling I have felt its tug in my blood Racing through my veins And in wonder and amazement I sing. While walking in the […]
Along The Way by Rabindranath Tagore
I receive your touch Now and then But I don’t know how and when. Is it in the scent of an unknown flower Or in the joy I feel in the song of a travelling singer? Do I receive your touch all on a sudden When there is great sorrow And my world is shaken […]
All These I Loved by Rabindranath Tagore
This dancing of the light on the leaves This playing of the wild winds Among the sal groves They have all maddened my mind Along this red-earth road That man going to the village market The little girl sitting on the dust Playing alone with her tray of toys Whatever I see before me They […]
A Hundred Years Hence by Rabindranath Tagore
Who it is With such curiosity Reads my poems A hundred years hence! Shall I be able to send you An iota of joy of this fresh spring morning The flower that blooms today The songs that the birds sing The glow of today’s setting sun Filled with my feelings of love? Yet for a […]
A Dream (English Translation) by Rabindranath Tagore
On the banks of the river Shipra Far far away in that land of dreams To seek the first love of my former life. She had lodhra* powder on her face A lotus she playfully held in her hand She stuck buds of kunda in her ears And kurubak flower in her hair Her slim […]
The Land of Counterpane by Robert Louis Stevenson
When I was sick and lay a-bed, I had two pillows at my head, And all my toys beside me lay, To keep me happy all the day. And sometimes for an hour or so I watched my leaden soldiers go, With different uniforms and drills, Among the bed-clothes, through the hills; And sometimes sent […]
Come, My Beloved, Hear From Me by Robert Louis Stevenson
COME, my beloved, hear from me Tales of the woods or open sea. Let our aspiring fancy rise A wren’s flight higher toward the skies; Or far from cities, brown and bare, Play at the least in open air. In all the tales men hear us tell Still let the unfathomed ocean swell, Or shallower […]
Come, Here Is Adieu To The City by Robert Louis Stevenson
COME, here is adieu to the city And hurrah for the country again. The broad road lies before me Watered with last night’s rain. The timbered country woos me With many a high and bough; And again in the shining fallows The ploughman follows the plough. The whole year’s sweat and study, And the whole […]
Come From The Daisied Meadows by Robert Louis Stevenson
HOME from the daisied meadows, where you linger yet – Home, golden-headed playmate, ere the sun is set; For the dews are falling fast And the night has come at last. Home with you, home and lay your little head at rest, Safe, safe, my little darling, on your mother’s breast. Lullaby, darling; your mother […]
Block City by Robert Louis Stevenson
What are you able to build with your blocks? Castles and palaces, temples and docks. Rain may keep raining, and others go roam, But I can be happy and building at home. Let the sofa be mountains, the carpet be sea, There I’ll establish a city for me: A kirk and a mill and a […]
Behold, As Goblins Dark Of Mien by Robert Louis Stevenson
BEHOLD, as goblins dark of mien And portly tyrants dyed with crime Change, in the transformation scene, At Christmas, in the pantomime, Instanter, at the prompter’s cough, The fairy bonnets them, and they Throw their abhorred carbuncles off And blossom like the flowers in May. – So mankind, to angelic eyes, So, through the scenes […]
Before This Little Gift Was Come by Robert Louis Stevenson
BEFORE this little gift was come The little owner had made haste for home; And from the door of where the eternal dwell, Looked back on human things and smiled farewell. O may this grief remain the only one! O may our house be still a garrison Of smiling children, and for evermore The tune […]
Away With Funeral Music by Robert Louis Stevenson
AWAY with funeral music; set The pipe to powerful lips – The cup of life’s for him that drinks And not for him that sips. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster — […]
Autumn Fires by Robert Louis Stevenson
In the other gardens And all up the vale, From the autumn bonfires See the smoke trail! Pleasant summer over And all the summer flowers, The red fire blazes, The grey smoke towers. Sing a song of seasons! Something bright in all! Flowers in the summer, Fires in the fall! ————— The End And that’s […]
Auntie’s Skirts by Robert Louis Stevenson
Whenever Auntie moves around, Her dresses make a curious sound, They trail behind her up the floor, And trundle after through the door. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster — the multilingual […]
At the Sea-Side by Robert Louis Stevenson
When I was down beside the sea A wooden spade they gave to me To dig the sandy shore. My holes were empty like a cup. In every hole the sea came up, Till it could come no more. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic […]
At Last She Comes by Robert Louis Stevenson
AT last she comes, O never more In this dear patience of my pain To leave me lonely as before, Or leave my soul alone again. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster […]
As One Who Having Wandered All Night Long by Robert Louis Stevenson
AS one who having wandered all night long In a perplexed forest, comes at length In the first hours, about the matin song, And when the sun uprises in his strength, To the fringed margin of the wood, and sees, Gazing afar before him, many a mile Of falling country, many fields and trees, And […]
As In Their Flight The Birds Of Song by Robert Louis Stevenson
AS in their flight the birds of song Halt here and there in sweet and sunny dales, But halt not overlong; The time one rural song to sing They pause; then following bounteous gales Steer forward on the wing: Sun-servers they, from first to last, Upon the sun they wait To ride the sailing blast. […]
Armies in the Fire by Robert Louis Stevenson
The lamps now glitter down the street; Faintly sound the falling feet; And the blue even slowly falls About the garden trees and walls. Now in the falling of the gloom The red fire paints the empty room: And warmly on the roof it looks, And flickers on the back of books. Armies march by […]
Apologetic Postscript Of A Year Later by Robert Louis Stevenson
IF you see this song, my dear, And last year’s toast, I’m confoundedly in fear You’ll be serious and severe About the boast. Blame not that I sought such aid To cure regret. I was then so lowly laid I used all the Gasconnade That I could get. Being snubbed is somewhat smart, Believe, my […]
An English Breeze by Robert Louis Stevenson
UP with the sun, the breeze arose, Across the talking corn she goes, And smooth she rustles far and wide Through all the voiceful countryside. Through all the land her tale she tells; She spins, she tosses, she compels The kites, the clouds, the windmill sails And all the trees in all the dales. God […]
Air Of Diabelli’s by Robert Louis Stevenson
CALL it to mind, O my love. Dear were your eyes as the day, Bright as the day and the sky; Like the stream of gold and the sky above, Dear were your eyes in the grey. We have lived, my love, O, we have lived, my love! Now along the silent river, azure Through […]
Ad Se Ipsum by Robert Louis Stevenson
DEAR sir, good-morrow! Five years back, When you first girded for this arduous track, And under various whimsical pretexts Endowed another with your damned defects, Could you have dreamed in your despondent vein That the kind God would make your path so plain? Non nobis, domine! O, may He still Support my stumbling footsteps on […]
Ad Quintilianum by Robert Louis Stevenson
O CHIEF director of the growing race, Of Rome the glory and of Rome the grace, Me, O Quintilian, may you not forgive Before from labour I make haste to live? Some burn to gather wealth, lay hands on rule, Or with white statues fill the atrium full. The talking hearth, the rafters sweet with […]
Ad Piscatorem by Robert Louis Stevenson
FOR these are sacred fishes all Who know that lord that is the lord of all; Come to the brim and nose the friendly hand That sways and can beshadow all the land. Nor only so, but have their names, and come When they are summoned by the Lord of Rome. Here once his line […]
Ad Olum by Robert Louis Stevenson
CALL me not rebel, though { here at every word {in what I sing If I no longer hail thee { King and Lord { Lord and King I have redeemed myself with all I had, And now possess my fortunes poor but glad. With all I had I have redeemed myself, And escaped at […]
Ad Nepotem by Robert Louis Stevenson
O NEPOS, twice my neigh(b)our (since at home We’re door by door, by Flora’s temple dome; And in the country, still conjoined by fate, Behold our villas standing gate by gate), Thou hast a daughter, dearer far than life – Thy image and the image of thy wife. Thy image and thy wife’s, and be […]
Ad Martialem by Robert Louis Stevenson
GO(D) knows, my Martial, if we two could be To enjoy our days set wholly free; To the true life together bend our mind, And take a furlough from the falser kind. No rich saloon, nor palace of the great, Nor suit at law should trouble our estate; On no vainglorious statues should we look, […]