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:
- Skunk Hour by Robert Lowell
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- Низами Гянджеви – Лица серебряный овал в сиянье покажи
- Sonnet. Written On A Blank Page In Shakespeare’s Poems, Facing ‘A Lover’s Complaint’ poem – John Keats poems
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мартовский Заяц
- Song—The Highland Balou by Robert Burns
- At Queensferry by William Ernest Henley
- Buddies by Richard Schiffman
- Aphrodite – The Birth by Uma Maheswari Anandane
- Remorseful Apology by Robert Burns
- The Loving Ballad Of Lord Bateman poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Song of the Bowmen of Shu poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Alone in the Wind, on the Prairie by Vachel Lindsay
- Владимир Высоцкий – Иноходец
- The Dandelion by Vachel Lindsay
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
- Lorelei by Sylvia Plath
- Little Fugue by Sylvia Plath
- Lesbos by Sylvia Plath
- Leaving Early by Sylvia Plath
- Landowners by Sylvia Plath
- Lament by Sylvia Plath
- Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath
- Kindness by Sylvia Plath
- Jilted by Sylvia Plath
- Insomniac by Sylvia Plath
- Incommunicado by Sylvia Plath
- I Want, I Want by Sylvia Plath
- I Am Vertical by Sylvia Plath
- Heavy Woman by Sylvia Plath
- Hardcastle Crags by Sylvia Plath
- Gulliver by Sylvia Plath
- Green Rock, Winthrop Bay by Sylvia Plath
- Gold Mouths Cry by Sylvia Plath
- Goatsucker by Sylvia Plath
- Gigolo by Sylvia Plath
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
