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:
- The Wound by Robert McNamara
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Е. А. Карлгоф
- Song—Awa’, Whigs, Awa’ by Robert Burns
- Lost poem – Alfred Austin
- The Parrot by William Cowper
- Flower by Rabindranath Tagore
- Song—Address to the Woodlark by Robert Burns
- Crossing Brooklyn Ferry. by Walt Whitman
- The Alien poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- I Want It Now by Roald Dahl
- Your souls are ours by Philo Ikonya
- The Eviction by William Allingham
- birch_tree.html
- Remembrance by Maya Angelou
- A Sketch by William Wordsworth
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 Moon’s the North Wind’s Cooky by Vachel Lindsay
- The Moon is a Painter by Vachel Lindsay
- The Merciful Hand by Vachel Lindsay
- The Master of the Dance by Vachel Lindsay
- The Little Turtle by Vachel Lindsay
- The Lion by Vachel Lindsay
- The Light o’ the Moon by Vachel Lindsay
- The Leaden-Eyed by Vachel Lindsay
- The King of Yellow Butterflies by Vachel Lindsay
- The Jingo and the Minstrel by Vachel Lindsay
- The Illinois Village by Vachel Lindsay
- The Hope of the Resurrection by Vachel Lindsay
- The Hearth Eternal by Vachel Lindsay
- The Haughty Snail-King by Vachel Lindsay
- The Ghosts of the Buffaloes by Vachel Lindsay
- The Gamblers by Vachel Lindsay
- The Flower of Mending by Vachel Lindsay
- The Flower-Fed Buffaloes by Vachel Lindsay
- The Fairy Bridal-Hymn by Vachel Lindsay
- The Empty Boats by Vachel Lindsay
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