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:
- The Journey by Yvor Winters
- Омар Хайям – Не порочь лозы-невесты
- Robert Burns: Epistle To John Rankine: Enclosing Some Poems
- Love by Robert Creeley
- Death Sir Henry Wootton
- Morpheus poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Владимир Луговской – Повелитель бумаги
- Black Pine Tree In An Orange Light by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Высоцкий – Нараспашку, при любой погоде
- The Songs of the Lathes by Rudyard Kipling
- America by Phillis Wheatley
- Sonnet 13: O, that you were your self! But, love, you are by William Shakespeare
- Dedication by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Back Home by Vladimir Mayakovsky
- Владимир Маяковский – Голос Красной площади
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
- The French Revolution as it appeared to Enthusiasts by William Wordsworth
- The French Army In Russia, 1812-13 by William Wordsworth
- The French And the Spanish Guerillas by William Wordsworth
- The Fountain by William Wordsworth
- The Forsaken by William Wordsworth
- The Force Of Prayer, Or, The Founding Of Bolton, A Tradition by William Wordsworth
- The Farmer Of Tilsbury Vale by William Wordsworth
- The Fairest, Brightest, Hues Of Ether Fade by William Wordsworth
- The Emigrant Mother by William Wordsworth
- The Eagle and the Dove by William Wordsworth
- The Danish Boy by William Wordsworth
- The Cottager To Her Infant by William Wordsworth
- The Complaint Of A Forsaken Indian Woman by William Wordsworth
- The Childless Father by William Wordsworth
- The Brothers by William Wordsworth
- The Birth Of Love by William Wordsworth
- The Affliction Of Margaret by William Wordsworth
- Surprised By Joy by William Wordsworth
- Stray Pleasures by William Wordsworth
- Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known by William Wordsworth
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.