A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Strophe I.
Ye shades, where sacred truth is sought;
Groves, where immortal Sages taught;
Where heav’nly visions of Plato fir’d,
And Epicurus lay inspir’d!
In vain your guiltless laurels stood
Unspotted long with human blood.
War, horrid war, your thoughtful walks invades,
And steel now glitters in the Muses’ shades.
Antistrophe I.
Oh heav’n-born sisters! source of art!
Who charm the sense, or mend the heart;
Who lead fair Virtue’s train along,
Moral Truth, and mystic Song!
To what new clime, what distant sky,
Forsaken, friendless, shall ye fly?
Say, will you bless the bleak Atlantic shore?
Or bid the furious Gaul be rude no more?
Strophe II.
When Athens sinks by fates unjust,
When wild Barbarians spurn her dust;
Perhaps ev’n Britain’s utmost shore,
Shall cease to blush with strager’s gore.
See Arts her savage sons control,
And Athens rising near the pole!
‘Till some new Tyrant lifts his purple hand,
And civil madness tears them from this land.
Antistrophe II.
Ye Gods! what justice rules the ball?
Freedom and Arts together fall;
Fools grant whate’er Ambition craves,
And men, once ignorant, are slaves.
Oh curs’d effects of civil hate,
In ev’ry age, in ev’ry state!
Still, when the lust of tyrant power succeeds,
Some Athens perishes, some Tully bleeds.

A few random poems:
- Written In March by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Маяковский – В авто
- A Maiden by Sara Teasdale
- Олег Григорьев – Цель жизни
- I Won, You Lost by Philip Levine
- South Africa by Rudyard Kipling
- The Tom Toms
- Hymn by Sidney Godolphin
- Жан де Лафонтен – Дафнис и Алцимадура
- Sonnet 78: So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse by William Shakespeare
- World Below the Brine, The. by Walt Whitman
- Homecoming by Robert Lowell
- The Fiddling Wood by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Orlando Furioso Canto 6 by Ludovico Ariosto
- I. The Witch of Coös by Robert Frost
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
- A Zong Of Harvest Hwome by William Barnes
- A Wife A-Praïs’d by William Barnes
- A-Haulen O’ The Corn by William Barnes
- A Good Father by William Barnes
- A Bit O’ Fun by William Barnes
- Invictus by William Ernest Henley
- Barmaid by William Ernest Henley
- Ballade of Dead Actors by William Ernest Henley
- Youth And Beauty by William Carlos Williams
- Heel & Toe To The End by William Carlos Williams
- from Book I, Paterson by William Carlos Williams
- Flowers By The Sea by William Carlos Williams
- Dedication For A Plot Of Ground by William Carlos Williams
- Danse Russe by William Carlos Williams
- Complete Destruction by William Carlos Williams
- Complaint by William Carlos Williams
- Children’s Games by William Carlos Williams
- Blizzard by William Carlos Williams
- Berket And The Stars by William Carlos Williams
- Aux Imagistes by William Carlos Williams
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