Sunday Poetry - Konstantin Nikoleyevich Batyushkov

This week’s poem is by Konstantin Nikoleyevich Batyushkov. He was born in 1787, joined the army, fought in the War of 1812 &, after retiring from the army, became a well-known poet. Sadly, at the age of 34, he became increasingly depressed & his mental health gradually worsened as he travelled in Europe searching for a cure. He spent the rest of his life, another 34 years, in seclusion.
This poem was written in 1819.

There is an enjoyment in a wilderness of trees,
A pleasure by the salty ocean,
There is a concord in the swell of heavy seas,
Cascading down in mindless motion.
I love my near and dear, but, Mother Nature, yet
Within my heart you are the stronger!
With you, O sovereign one, I can at once forget
Both what I was, when I was younger,
And what I have become beneath the chill of time.
Through you my senses have awoken:
My soul cannot express these things in graceful rhyme
Yet cannot let them stay unspoken.