A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)
There was a boy — not above childish fears —
With steps that faltered now and straining ears,
Timid, irresolute, yet dauntless still,
Who one bright dawn, when each remotest hill
Stood sharp and clear in Heaven’s unclouded blue
And all Earth shimmered with fresh-beaded dew,
Risen in the first beams of the gladdening sun,
Walked up into the mountains. One by one
Each towering trunk beneath his sturdy stride
Fell back, and ever wider and more wide
The boundless prospect opened. Long he strayed,
From dawn till the last trace of slanting shade
Had vanished from the canyons, and, dismayed
At that far length to which his path had led,
He paused — at such a height where overhead
The clouds hung close, the air came thin and chill,
And all was hushed and calm and very still,
Save, from abysmal gorges, where the sound
Of tumbling waters rose, and all around
The pines, by those keen upper currents blown,
Muttered in multitudinous monotone.
Here, with the wind in lovely locks laid bare,
With arms oft raised in dedicative prayer,
Lost in mute rapture and adoring wonder,
He stood, till the far noise of noontide thunder,
Rolled down upon the muffled harmonies
Of wind and waterfall and whispering trees,
Made loneliness more lone. Some Panic fear
Would seize him then, as they who seemed to hear
In Tracian valleys or Thessalian woods
The god’s hallooing wake the leafy solitudes;
I think it was the same: some piercing sense
Of Deity’s pervasive immanence,
The Life that visible Nature doth indwell
Grown great and near and all but palpable . . .
He might not linger, but with winged strides
Like one pursued, fled down the mountain-sides —
Down the long ridge that edged the steep ravine,
By glade and flowery lawn and upland green,
And never paused nor felt assured again
But where the grassy foothills opened. Then,
While shadows lengthened on the plain below
And the sun vanished and the sunset-glow
Looked back upon the world with fervid eye
Through the barred windows of the western sky,
Homeward he fared, while many a look behind
Showed the receding ranges dim-outlined,
Highland and hollow where his path had lain,
Veiled in deep purple of the mountain rain.
A few random poems:
- Омар Хайям – О, не растите дерево печали
- Song—She’s Fair and Fause by Robert Burns
- My Heart Screams by Roberto Cocina
- Sonnet 50: How heavy do I journey on the way by William Shakespeare
- CBSE Education: Teaching Creative Learning
- Владимир Маяковский – Чтоб из недели “Заботы о достоянии” толку выйти, вот так, товарищи, агитацию ведите (Главполитпросвет №374)
- Robert Burns: Does Haughty Gaul Invasion Threat?:
- Иван Бунин – Апрель
- Writing to Onegin by Ruth Padel
- By A Norfolk Broad
- Year of Meteors, 1859 ’60. by Walt Whitman
- Владимир Набоков – И видел я, стемнели неба своды
- Entropy by Sriparna Bandyopadhyay
- Lines For Winter by Mark Strand
- Владимир Солоухин – Вдоль берегов Болгарии прошли мы
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 Birch-Tree at Loschwitz poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Straw in the Street poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sonnet poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sinfonia Eroica poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Run to Death poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Ralph to Mary poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Philosophy poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Out of Town poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- On the Wye in May poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- On the Threshold poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Oh, Is It Love? poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- New Love, New Life poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Magdalen poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- London Poets poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- London in July poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Lohengrin poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Last Words poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- June poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- In the Nower poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- In the Night poem – Amy Levy 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 Seeger (1888-1916) was an American war poet who fought and died in World War I during the Battle of the Somme, serving in the French Foreign Legion. Seeger was the brother of Charles Seeger, a noted American pacifist and musicologist and the uncle of folk musician, Pete Seeger.