A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
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:
- Broken wings of a Heart by Saajida Gora
- Федор Сологуб – Тепло мне потому, что мой уютный дом
- The Rose by William Cowper
- Maudlin by Sylvia Plath
- Pensive and Faltering. by Walt Whitman
- Memory by William Wordsworth
- Green Notes by Mrunmayi Mandan
- Absence poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- To Any Dead Officer by Siegfried Sassoon
- Solitude poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 X. Rob Roy’s Grave by William Wordsworth
- All About You by Shel Silverstein
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Богач
- Владимир Маяковский – Эй, товарищ! Поищи дома (Главполитпросвет №95)
- The Prophet poem – Alexander Pushkin
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
- In Every Language by Rifat Ilgaz
- I’m Sexy and I Know It by Aiyah De Torres
- I Write a Poem by Aiyah De Torres
- Girl Child – An Alternate Reality by Rekha Seshadri
- Elusive Lover by Renu Ayyar
- Crows and Hawks by Richard Schiffman
- Clever Stalk by Richard Schiffman
- Buddies by Richard Schiffman
- Buddha at Kamakura by Rudyard Kipling
- Beyond Darkness And Despair by Renu Ayyar
- Before you go a little way prospecting by T. Wignesan
- Are You a Thinking Man? by Rifat Ilgaz
- A Lost Friend, I Never Had by Renu Ayyar
- A Goddess by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Vacation by Rita Dove
- Tonight she remembers by Rita Odessa Villaruel
- There Came a Soul by Rita Dove
- The Emotion Line by Rita Odessa Villaruel
- The Bistro Styx by Rita Dove
- The Secret Garden by Rita Dove
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
