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:
- Гавриил Державин – О удовольствии
- Since That Summer by Mike Yuan
- Sonnet 72: O, lest the world should task you to recite by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мы вместе грабили одну и ту же хату
- The End of the Day poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Михаил Кузмин – Зачем копье Архистратига
- Robert Burns: O Wert Thou In The Cauld Blast:
- Here the Frailest Leaves of Me. by Walt Whitman
- Омар Хайям – Что жизнь
- Stroll In A Particle
- Sonnet 75: So are you to my thoughts as food to life by William Shakespeare
- Her Praise by William Butler Yeats
- Sonnet 136: If thy soul check thee that I come so near by William Shakespeare
- Nay Not To Night
- The Blind Man by Théophile Gautier
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
- A Rustic Seat Near The Sea by William Lisle Bowles
- A Garden-Seat At Home by William Lisle Bowles
- Where fair Sabrina’s wand’ring currents flow by William Somervile
- To the Right Hon. The Earl of Halifax , with the Fable of the Two Springs by William Somervile
- To the Right Hon. Lady Anne Coventry by William Somervile
- To the Duke of Marlborough, upon His Removal From All His Places by William Somervile
- To the Author of the The Essay on Man by William Somervile
- To Dr. MReading Mathmatics by William Somervile
- To a Young Lady, with the Illiad of Homer Translated by William Somervile
- To a Lady, Who Made Me a Present of a Silver Pen by William Somervile
- To a Gentleman, Who Married His Cast Mistress by William Somervile
- To a Discarded Toast by William Somervile
- The Yeoman of Kent by William Somervile
- The Wolf and the Dog by William Somervile
- The Wise Builder by William Somervile
- The Two Springs by William Somervile
- The True Use of the Looking-Glass by William Somervile
- The Superannuated Lover by William Somervile
- The Sheep and the Bush by William Somervile
- The Lamentation of David Over Saul and Jonathan by William Somervile
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