A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) , the greatest English poet of “Augustan” or Georgian period
Semichorus.
Oh Tyrant Love! hast thou possest
The prudent, learn’d, and virtuous breast?
Wisdom and wit in vain reclaim,
And Arts but soften us to feel thy flame.
Love, soft intruder, enters here,
But ent’ring learns to be sincere.
Marcus with blushes owns he loves,
And Brutus tenderly reproves.
Why, Virtue, dost thou blame desire,
Which Nature has imprest?
Why, Nature, dost thou soonest fire
The mild and gen’rous breast?
Chorus.
Love’s purer flames the Gods approve;
The Gods and Brutus bent to love:
Brutus for absent Portia sighs,
And sterner Cassius melts at Junia’s eyes.
What is loose love? a transient gust,
Spent in a sudden storm of lust,
A vapour fed from wild desire,
A wand’ring, self-consuming fire,
But Hymen’s kinder flames unite;
And burn for ever one;
Chaste as cold Cynthia’s virgin light,
Productive as the Sun.
Semichorus.
Oh source of ev’ry social tie,
United wish, and mutual joy!
What various joys on one attend,
As son, as father, brother husband, friend?
Whether his hoary sire he spies,
While thousand grateful thoughts arise;
Or meets his spouse’s fonder eye;
Or views his smiling progeny;
What tender passions take their turns,
What home-felt raptures move?
His heart now melts, now leaps, now burns,
With rev’rence, hope, and love.
Chorus.
Hence guilty joys, distastes, surmises,
Hence false tears, deceits, disguises,
Dangers, doubts, delays, surprises;
Fires that scorch, yet dare not shine
Purest love’s unwasting treasure,
Constant faith, fair hope, long leisure,
Days of ease, and nights of pleasure;
Sacred Hymen! these are thine.

A few random poems:
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- Melville And Coghill – The Place Of The Little Hand poem – Andrew Lang poems
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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 Old Stone Cross by William Butler Yeats
- The Old Men Admiring Themselves In The Water by William Butler Yeats
- The Old Age Of Queen Maeve by William Butler Yeats
- The Nineteenth Century And After by William Butler Yeats
- The New Faces by William Butler Yeats
- The Municipal Gallery Revisited by William Butler Yeats
- The Mountain Tomb by William Butler Yeats
- The Mother Of God by William Butler Yeats
- The Moods by William Butler Yeats
- The Meditation Of The Old Fisherman by William Butler Yeats
- The Mask by William Butler Yeats
- The Man Who Dreamed Of Faeryland by William Butler Yeats
- The Magi by William Butler Yeats
- The Madness Of King Goll by William Butler Yeats
- The Lover’s Song by William Butler Yeats
- The Lover Tells Of The Rose In His Heart by William Butler Yeats
- The Lover Pleads With His Friend For Old Friends by William Butler Yeats
- The Lover Mourns For The Loss Of Love by William Butler Yeats
- The Lover Asks Forgiveness Because Of His Many Moods by William Butler Yeats
- The Living Beauty by William Butler Yeats
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
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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
Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744) was a a post-Restoration English poet and satirist. He is a poet of the (British) Augustan period and one of its greatest artistic exponents.