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:
- Racial Memories of a Chickadee by Todd H. C. Fischer
- The Princess (part 2) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Sonnet 105: Let not my love be called idolatry by William Shakespeare
- Why? by Tiffany Ann Monroe
- Proud Word You Never Spoke by Walter Savage Landor
- Song IV: Draw Near and Behold Me by William Morris
- There Pass the Careless People poem – A. E. Housman
- Владимир Маяковский – Про гидру контрреволюции сегодня сказ (РОСТА № 79)
- Paradise Regained: The Second Book poem – John Milton poems
- Камышева Ю. – На далёком полюсе, где метёт пурга
- Mark
- Harp Song of the Dane Women by Rudyard Kipling
- Владимир Высоцкий – Не писать стихов мне и романов
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Средь бега дней моих порой
- Binsey Poplars poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
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
- I’ll go and be a Sodger by Robert Burns
- Halloween by Robert Burns
- Green Grow The Rashes by Robert Burns
- Fragment on Sensibility by Robert Burns
- Fragment of Song—The Night was Still by Robert Burns
- Fragment of Song—“My Jean!” by Robert Burns
- Fragment—Her Flwoing Locks by Robert Burns
- For a’ that and a’ that by Robert Burns
- Fickle Fortune: A Fragment by Robert Burns
- Fareweel To A’Our Scottish Fame by Robert Burns
- Extempore Reply to an Invitation by Robert Burns
- Extempore on some commemorations of Thomson by Robert Burns
- Extempore in the Court of Session by Robert Burns
- Extemporaneous Effusion on being appointed to an Excise Division by Robert Burns
- Esteem for Chloris by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on Wm. Graham, Esq., of Mossknowe by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on William Muir by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on William Hood, Senior by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on “Wee Johnnie” by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on the same by Robert Burns
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.