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:
- Аля Кудряшева – Рыбный вальсок
- Love’s Paradox by Vishü Rita Krocha
- Олег Бундур – Гроза
- Константин Бальмонт – Электрон
- The Answer by Rudyard Kipling
- Sonnet 07
- Guillaume de Lorris Belated: A Vision of Italy by Ezra Pound
- Sonnet: As From The Darkening Gloom A Silver Dove poem – John Keats poems
- The Look by Sara Teasdale
- Olney Hymn 27: Welcome To The Table by William Cowper
- Ольга Седакова – Музыка
- Love Sonnet LX poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Владимир Маяковский – Точеные слоны
- Wings
- In The End by Sara Teasdale
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
- My Friends by W. S. Merwin
- Language by W. S. Merwin
- It Is March by W. S. Merwin
- William Stanley Merwin – William Stanley Merwin
- Green Fields by W. S. Merwin
- For The Anniversary Of My Death by W. S. Merwin
- For A Coming Extinction by W. S. Merwin
- When I Met My Muse by William Stafford
- Waking at 3 a.m. by William Stafford
- Traveling Through The Dark by William Stafford
- Thinking For Berky by William Stafford
- The Light By The Barn by William Stafford
- Security by William Stafford
- Returned To Say by William Stafford
- Remembering Mountain Men by William Stafford
- Objector by William Stafford
- Notice What This Poem Is Not Doing by William Stafford
- Lit Instructor by William Stafford
- Just Thinking by William Stafford
- William Stafford – William Stafford
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
