A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) , the greatest English poet of “Augustan” or Georgian period
Heav’n from all creatures hides the book of fate,
All but the page prescrib’d, their present state:
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know:
Or who could suffer being here below?
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed today,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas’d to the last, he crops the flow’ry food,
And licks the hand just rais’d to shed his blood.
Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv’n,
That each may fill the circle mark’d by Heav’n:
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl’d,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.
Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore.
What future bliss, he gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor’d mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul, proud science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk, or milky way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv’n,
Behind the cloud topp’d hill, an humbler heav’n;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac’d,
Some happier island in the wat’ry waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
To be, contents his natural desire,
He asks no angel’s wing, no seraph’s fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky.

A few random poems:
- Star-Gazers by William Wordsworth
- Robert Burns: Had I A Cave:
- Аля Кудряшева – Поперек
- The Lamentation of David Over Saul and Jonathan by William Somervile
- Алексей Жемчужников – Знакомая картина
- Иван Мятлев – Лютня
- Алексей Толстой – Ты знаешь, я люблю
- Robert Burns: Election Ballad: At the close of the contest for representing the Dumfries Burghs, 1790. Addressed to R. Graham, Esq. of Fintry.
- Жан де Лафонтен – Шершни и Пчелы
- Ок Мельникова – Тоской тома йорка
- Waking at 3 a.m. by William Stafford
- Robert Burns: On A Scotch Bard, Gone To The West Indies:
- Владимир Костров – Не трогайте жанр
- A Wall Flower poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. He Who Loves. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
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 Old Maids Story
- The Night
- The Mob
- The Midnight Mass
- The Magic Wand
- The Legend Of Lady Gertrude
- The Last Battle Of The Cid
- The Kind Word
- The Hands That Hang Down
- The Hand In The Dark
- The Future Verdict
- The Easter Decorations
- The Dawn
- The Dawn Of Gods Sabbath
- The Crown Of Thorns
- The Coo Of The Cushat
- The Candle Of The Lord
- The Baptistry
- Sic Vos Non Vobis
- Seed Time And Harvest
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.