A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) , the greatest English poet of “Augustan” or Georgian period
Dear, damn’d distracting town, farewell!
Thy fools no more I’ll tease:
This year in peace, ye critics, dwell,
Ye harlots, sleep at ease!
Soft B– and rough C–s adieu,
Earl Warwick made your moan,
The lively H–k and you
May knock up whores alone.
To drink and droll be Rowe allow’d
Till the third watchman’s toll;
Let Jervas gratis paint, and Frowde
Save three-pence and his soul.
Farewell, Arbuthnot’s raillery
On every learned sot;
And Garth, the best good Christian he,
Although he knows it not.
Lintot, farewell! thy bard must go;
Farewell, unhappy Tonson!
Heaven gives thee for thy loss of Rowe,
Lean Philips, and fat Johnson.
Why should I stay? Both parties rage;
My vixen mistress squalls;
The wits in envious feuds engage:
And Homer (damn him!) calls.
The love of arts lies cold and dead
In Halifax’s urn:
And not one Muse of all he fed
Has yet the grace to mourn.
My friends, by turns, my friends confound,
Betray, and are betrayed:
Poor Y–r’s sold for fifty pound,
And B–ll is a jade.
Why make I friendships with the great,
When I no favour seek?
Or follow girls, seven hours in eight?
I us’d but once a week.
Still idle, with a busy air,
Deep whimsies to contrive;
The gayest valetudinaire,
Most thinking rake, alive.
Solicitous for others’ ends,
Though fond of dear repose;
Careless or drowsy with my friends,
And frolic with my foes.
Luxurious lobster-nights, farewell,
For sober, studious days!
And Burlington’s delicious meal,
For salads, tarts, and pease!
Adieu to all, but Gay alone,
Whose soul, sincere and free,
Loves all mankind, but flatters none,
And so may starve with me.
A few random poems:
- Night on the Convoy by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Chambermaid’s Second Song by William Butler Yeats
- Crazy Jane And Jack The Journeyman by William Butler Yeats
- Яков Полонский – Орел и голубка
- A god in wrath by Stephen Crane
- Memoriam A. H. H.: 72. Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Bwoat by William Barnes
- Олег Григорьев – Я взял бумагу и перо
- Gem Immortality
- Николай Языков – Пушкину (О ты, чья дружба мне дороже)
- The Heritage by Siegfried Sassoon
- I Remember, I Remember by Philip Larkin
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песенка лягушонка Джимми и ящерки Билли
- Blessens A-Left by William Barnes
- Sonnet 10
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
- Dickinson And The Alabaster Gogyohka
- Dawned Again
- Create
- Conference Swan Beauty
- Colors And Sounds
- Children039s Eyes
- Audience With A Poet Written December 13 1976 For Robert E Hayden Ph D
- Athens Stone Of Sapphire Of Ground The Ring
- As With Recitation And The Loss Of A Kuhi
- Antediluvian Kural On Twitter
- Alexander
- Acts Of Love
- A Single Man
- A Poet039s Privilege
- A Poem
- A Dialogue
- A City One Wish
- A Choka Is A Littoral Drift
- Gazebo
- All Days Seem Same
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.