A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) , the greatest English poet of “Augustan” or Georgian period
As some fond virgin, whom her mother’s care
Drags from the town to wholesome country air,
Just when she learns to roll a melting eye,
And hear a spark, yet think no danger nigh;
From the dear man unwilling she must sever,
Yet takes one kiss before she parts for ever:
Thus from the world fair Zephalinda flew,
Saw others happy, and with sighs withdrew;
Not that their pleasures caused her discontent,
She sigh’d not that they staid, but that she went.
She went to plain-work, and to purling brooks,
Old-fashion’d halls, dull aunts, and croaking rooks:
She went from opera, park, assembly, play,
To morning-walks, and prayers three hours a-day:
To part her time ‘twixt reading and bohea,
To muse, and spill her solitary tea;
Or o’er cold coffee trifle with the spoon,
Count the slow clock, and dine exact at noon;
Divert her eyes with pictures in the fire,
Hum half a tune, tell stories to the ‘squire;
Up to her godly garret after seven,
There starve and pray, for that’s the way to heaven.
Some ‘squire, perhaps, you take delight to rack;
Whose game is whist, whose treat, a toast in sack;
Who visits with a gun, presents you birds,
Then gives a smacking buss, and cries–No words!
Or with his hound comes hallooing from the stable,
Makes love with nods, and knees beneath a table;
Whose laughs are hearty, though his jests are coarse,
And loves you best of all things–but his horse.
In some fair evening, on your elbow laid,
You dream of triumphs in the rural shade;
In pensive thought recall the fancied scene,
See coronations rise on every green;
Before you pass the imaginary sights
Of lords, and earls, and dukes, and garter’d knights,
While the spread fan o’ershades your closing eyes;
Then give one flirt, and all the vision flies.
Thus vanish sceptres, coronets, and balls,
And leave you in lone woods, or empty walls!
So when your slave, at some dear idle time,
(Not plagued with headaches, or the want of rhyme)
Stands in the streets, abstracted from the crew,
And while he seems to study, thinks of you;
Just when his fancy paints your sprightly eyes,
Or sees the blush of soft Parthenia rise,
Gay pats my shoulder, and you vanish quite,
Streets, chairs, and coxcombs rush upon my sight;
Vex’d to be still in town, I knit my brow,
Look sour, and hum a tune, as you do now.
A few random poems:
- The Swamp Fox by William Gilmore Simms
- Robert Burns: To The Weavers Gin Ye Go:
- Poetic Abbreviations, Poetry Abbreviations
- I Cast My Net Into The Sea by Rabindranath Tagore
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 01 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
- Love is a Tree by Rumi
- Roads poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Street Cries by Sarojini Naidu
- Sonnet 108: What’s in the brain that ink may character by William Shakespeare
- Английская поэзия. Редьярд Киплинг. «Эпитафии Войны». 1914-1918. 1. Убытки поровну. Rudyard Kipling. «Epitaphs of the War». 1914-1918. 1. «Equality of Sacrifice»
- MANY NAMESAKES by Satish Verma
- Old Susan by Walter de la Mare
- Жан де Лафонтен – Воля и Неволя
- Even As A Dragon’s Eye That Feels The Stress by William Wordsworth
- A Prayer For Old Age by William Butler Yeats
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
- Василий Курочкин – На погребение бедового критика
- Василий Курочкин – Мы всё смешное косим, косим
- Василий Курочкин – Мчит меня в твои объятья
- Василий Курочкин – Казацкие стихотворения
- Василий Курочкин – Как не вскрикнуть тут с поэтом
- Василий Курочкин – Двуглавый орел
- Василий Курочкин – Дама приятная во всех отношениях
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Москва майская
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Марш веселых ребят
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Жрец искусства
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Здравствуй, школа
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Закаляйся
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Водовоз
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Веселый ветер
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – В метро
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – В дальний путь идут корабли
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Только на фронте
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Так говорил танкистам политрук
- Лебедев-Кумач – Священная война: стих “Вставай, страна огромная”, текст песни на Poetry Monster
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Стихи не на тему
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

Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744) was a a post-Restoration English poet and satirist. He is a poet of the (British) Augustan period and one of its greatest artistic exponents.