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:
- I turn my head by Vladimir Marku
- Илона Грошева – Когда приходит Дима в парк
- Олег Григорьев – Четверорукими ногами
- life on the escalator by Raj Arumugam
- Io v’amo sol perche (I Love You Simply Because) by Torquato Tasso
- With Antecedents. by Walt Whitman
- Impostor’s Coronation
- Владимир Высоцкий – На Филиппинах бархатный сезон
- Юлия Друнина – Русский вечер
- The Secret Rose by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Британишский – У этой матери кормящей
- The Sons of Martha by Rudyard Kipling
- Epitaph for Mr. William Michie, Schoolmaster by Robert Burns
- Владимир Британишский – Памятник
- Ольга Берггольц – Два стихотворения дочерям
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
- In the Home Stretch by Robert Frost
- In Neglect by Robert Frost
- In Hardwood Groves by Robert Frost
- In a Vale by Robert Frost
- In a Disused Graveyard by Robert Frost
- Immigrants by Robert Frost
- II. The Pauper Witch of Grafton by Robert Frost
- I Will Sing You One-O by Robert Frost
- I. The Witch of Coös by Robert Frost
- Hyla Brook by Robert Frost
- Home Burial by Robert Frost
- Hannibal by Robert Frost
- Good Hours by Robert Frost
- Good-by and Keep Cold by Robert Frost
- Going for Water by Robert Frost
- Ghost House by Robert Frost
- Gathering Leaves by Robert Frost
- Fragmentary Blue by Robert Frost
- For Once, Then, Something by Robert Frost
- Flower-Gathering by Robert Frost
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.