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:
- Books poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Юнна Мориц – Комарово
- Владимир Высоцкий – Величальная отцу
- Sweet Dancer by William Butler Yeats
- Robert Burns: Epitaph On John Dove, Innkeeper:
- Нина Воронель – Бабий стих
- Insolent Storm Strikes At The Skull by Sylvia Plath
- Gold! by Thomas Hood
- Владимир Бенедиктов – На пятидесятилетний юбилей Крылова
- The Polar Koala Bear by Robby Charters
- Владимир Маяковский – Товарище, не забывайте о Врангеле-бароне! (РОСТА № 116)
- Song—Fragment—Leezie Lindsay by Robert Burns
- To a President. by Walt Whitman
- Ольга Берггольц – Мой дом
- Sleeping for Kafka by Nin Andrews
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
- Владимир Корнилов – Муки свободы
- Владимир Корнилов – Молодая поэзия
- Владимир Корнилов – Место
- Владимир Корнилов – Маросейка
- Владимир Корнилов – Лермонтов
- Владимир Корнилов – Кривая
- Владимир Корнилов – Командировка на Север
- Владимир Корнилов – Иннокентий Анненский
- Владимир Корнилов – Игра судьбы
- Владимир Корнилов – Гумилев
- Владимир Корнилов – Глухота
- Владимир Корнилов – Гитара
- Владимир Корнилов – Флейта в метро
- Владимир Корнилов – Эпоха
- Владимир Корнилов – Двое
- Владимир Корнилов – Дождь обычный
- Владимир Корнилов – Достается, наверно, непросто
- Владимир Корнилов – Дом
- Владимир Корнилов – Державинское
- Владимир Корнилов – Чтение
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.