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:
- Transcended Land Of Love by Vaishnavi Prakash
- A Poem Upon The Death Of O.C. poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Валерий Брюсов – Идеал
- The Sacrifice Of Iphigenia
- Олег Сердобольский – Стой, кто идет
- New York’s Bad Dream by Matthew Abuelo
- Ольга Берггольц – Я иду по местам боев
- Sonnet 60: Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore by William Shakespeare
- To a Young Lady, with the Illiad of Homer Translated by William Somervile
- Юлия Друнина – В манеже
- The Soundless Ocean by Tanmoy
- Happy Teacher’s Day by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- Гавриил Державин – На храм при Гапсале
- Высоцкий – Спасибо, что живой: стих, текст “Мой черный человек в костюме сером” – Poetry Monster
- Олег Сердобольский – У сосульки льет из носа
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
- Dancing by Robert Hass
- Children Are Like Water by Robert Lloyd Jaffe
- Cascade by Robert Desnos
- Between The Wars by Robert Hass
- What We Leave Behind by Robert Saltzman
- Water by Robert Lowell
- Waking in the Blue by Robert Lowell
- The Wound by Robert McNamara
- The Withdrawal by Robert Lowell
- The Ruins Of Time by Robert Lowell
- The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket by Robert Lowell
- The Drunken Fisherman by Robert Lowell
- Skunk Hour by Robert Lowell
- Promise Me Rain Retold by Roberto Cocina
- San Francisco Night Windows by Robert Penn Warren
- True Love by Robert Penn Warren
- Tell Me a Story by Robert Penn Warren
- Mortal Limit by Robert Penn Warren
- Evening Hawk by Robert Penn Warren
- A Way to Love God by Robert Penn Warren
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