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:
- Stans Puer ad Mensam by Sir Walter Raleigh
- A Purse-String by William Strode
- Sonnet 07
- Doomes-Day: The Eighth Houre by William Alexander
- Lyric of Love to Leah poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Clote (Water-Lily) by William Barnes
- Олег Бундур – Про любовь
- Backtracking by Satish Verma
- Poor Honest Men by Rudyard Kipling
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи с поднесением выписок
- Azure and Gold poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Олег Бундур – Февраль
- Николай Гумилев – За часом час бежит и падает во тьму
- The Maid Vor My Bride by William Barnes
- Николай Карамзин – К портрету Ломоносова
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
- Considering The Snail by Thom Gunn
- Broken Love by Talha Jafri
- Black Market Love by Taisha Destin
- Attention please! Attention please! by Roald Dahl
- An Act of Faith by Talha Jafri
- After Years by Ted Kooser
- Abd el-Hadi Fights a Superpower by Taha Muhammad Ali
- A Ghost in the Shell by Talha Jafri
- 10 Things I Do Every Day by Ted Berrigan
- Zermatt To The Matterhorn. by Thomas Hardy
- A Woman’s Fancy by Thomas Hardy
- The Woman In The Rye by Thomas Hardy
- A Week by Thomas Hardy
- The Year’s Awakening by Thomas Hardy
- The Workbox by Thomas Hardy
- The Wistful Lady by Thomas Hardy
- The Puzzled Game-Birds by Thomas Hardy
- A Spot by Thomas Hardy
- A Sign-Seeker by Thomas Hardy
- “The Curtains Now Are Drawn” by Thomas Hardy
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
