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:
- To A May Baby by Winifred Mary Letts
- Joy of giving by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- A Lover To His Mistress by William Strode
- Robert Burns: Remorse: Fragment
- Another Song Of A Fool by William Butler Yeats
- Robert Burns: Craigieburn Wood:
- Nocturne by W H Auden
- Popcorn, Glass Balls, and Cranberries by Vachel Lindsay
- Николай Заболоцкий – Рыбная лавка
- Владимир Маяковский – Две культуры
- Heavy Woman by Sylvia Plath
- To poem – John Keats poems
- With his venom by Sappho
- Robinson by Weldon Kees
- never.html
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
- Book Fifth-Books by William Wordsworth
- Book Eleventh: France [concluded] by William Wordsworth
- Book Eighth: Retrospect–Love Of Nature Leading To Love Of Man by William Wordsworth
- “Behold Vale! I Said, When I Shall Con” by William Wordsworth
- Beggars by William Wordsworth
- “Avaunt All Specious Pliancy Of Mind” by William Wordsworth
- At Applewaite, Near Keswick 1804 by William Wordsworth
- ” As faith thus sanctified the warrior’s crest” by William Wordsworth
- Artegal And Elidure by William Wordsworth
- Anticipation, October 1803 by William Wordsworth
- Animal Tranquility And Decay by William Wordsworth
- Anecdote For Fathers by William Wordsworth
- Andrew Jones by William Wordsworth
- “And Is It Among Rude Untutored Dales” by William Wordsworth
- An Evening Walk by William Wordsworth
- Among All Lovely Things My Love Had Been by William Wordsworth
- Alice Fell, Or Poverty by William Wordsworth
- After-Thought by William Wordsworth
- “Advance – Come Forth From Thy Tyrolean Ground” by William Wordsworth
- Admonition by William Wordsworth
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