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:
- Омар Хайям – Когда фиалки льют благоуханье
- Incense by Vachel Lindsay
- The Jingo and the Minstrel by Vachel Lindsay
- Константин Бальмонт – Цветок
- Жан де Лафонтен – Садовод и Помещик
- Николай Заболоцкий – Кулак, владыка батраков
- Такахама Кёси – Как ярко сияет
- Apple-Blossoms by Will McKendree Carleton
- Clashes by Ndue Ukaj
- Кондратий Рылеев – Переводчику «Андромахи»
- Love by Shahida Latif
- Who Knows? by Vachel Lindsay
- When I Came Last to Ludlow poem – A. E. Housman
- The Upstairs Room by Weldon Kees
- Men Improve With The Years 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
- Traveling Dream by Marge Piercy
- Toad Dreams by Marge Piercy
- To the Pay Toilet by Marge Piercy
- To Be of Use by Marge Piercy
- To a Steam Roller by Marianne Moore
- To an Intra-mural Rat by Marianne Moore
- The Woman in the Ordinary by Marge Piercy
- The Steeple-Jack by Marianne Moore
- The Seven Of Pentacles by Marge Piercy
- The Past is the Present by Marianne Moore
- The Paper Nautilus by Marianne Moore
- The Pangolin by Marianne Moore
- The Neighbor by Marge Piercy
- The Morning Half-Life Blues by Marge Piercy
- The Moment I knew my Life had Changed by Maria Mazziotti Gillan
- The Friend by Marge Piercy
- The Fish by Marianne Moore
- The Dark Cavalier by Margaret Widdemer
- The Colloquy Beneath by Margaret Marie Hubbard
- The Cat’s Song by Marge Piercy
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.