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:
- Final Soliloquy Of The Interior Paramour by Wallace Stevens
- In Every Language by Rifat Ilgaz
- Wherever You Go, There You Are by Ryssel Guzman
- The Sitter by Shel Silverstein
- Hope, Like The Short-lived Ray That Gleams Awhile by William Cowper
- On Observing Some Names Of Little Note Recorded In The Biographia Britannica by William Cowper
- Альфред де Мюссе – Песнь барберины
- Counting by Philip Larkin
- The Invention of Honey by Ricardo Sternberg
- Вера Павлова – Торчащее обтесать
- Ribblesdale poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Snowy Spring Is Raging Mad poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- How Soon Hath Time poem – John Milton poems
- A Good Boy by Robert Louis Stevenson
- My Mistress Commanding Me to Return Her Letters. by Thomas Carew
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 Dark House by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Choral Union by Siegfried Sassoon
- Survivors by Siegfried Sassoon
- Suicide In The Trenches by Siegfried Sassoon
- Stretcher Case by Siegfried Sassoon
- Storm and Sunlight by Siegfried Sassoon
- Stand-To: Good Friday Morning by Siegfried Sassoon
- South Wind by Siegfried Sassoon
- Song-Books of the War by Siegfried Sassoon
- Slumber-Song by Siegfried Sassoon
- Sick Leave by Siegfried Sassoon
- Secret Music by Siegfried Sassoon
- Remorse by Siegfried Sassoon
- Reconciliation by Siegfried Sassoon
- Prelude to an Unwritten Masterpiece by Siegfried Sassoon
- Picture-Show by Siegfried Sassoon
- Parted by Siegfried Sassoon
- October by Siegfried Sassoon
- Noah by Siegfried Sassoon
- Nimrod in September by Siegfried Sassoon
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