A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
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:
- Ione, Dead the Long Year poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Poem Reaching For Something by Quincy Troupe
- a delicate beauty along the shore by Raj Arumugam
- Жан де Лафонтен – Городская и полевая Крысы
- Ярослав Смеляков – Стихи, написанные на почте
- Владимир Высоцкий – Куплеты нечистой силы
- Владимир Гиляровский – Грядущее
- The Brave and the Love Flute by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
- A Heart Divided by Pierre Reverdy
- Омар Хайям – Будь камнем твердым я
- Away, Melancholy by Stevie Smith
- A Song To Eleonora Duse In “Francesca da Rimini ” by Sara Teasdale
- Джон Китс – Что ж, по горам и по долам
- My Government Frustrates Me by Olaniyi Beloved Abimbola
- Robert Burns: Raving Winds Around Her Blowing: I composed these verses on Miss Isabella M’Leod of Raza, alluding to her feelings on the death of her sister, and the still more melancholy death of her sister’s husband, the late Earl of Loudoun, who shot himself out of sheer heart-break at some mortifications he suffered, owing to the deranged state of his finances.-R.B., 1971.
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
- Essay on Man poem – Alexander Pope
- Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot poem – Alexander Pope
- Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle IV, To Richard Boyle, poem – Alexander Pope
- Epistle II: To A Lady (Of the Characters of Women) poem – Alexander Pope
- Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness poem – Alexander Pope
- Eloisa to Abelard poem – Alexander Pope
- Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady poem – Alexander Pope
- Couplets on Wit poem – Alexander Pope
- Argus poem – Alexander Pope
- An Essay on Man in Four Epistles: Epistle 1 poem – Alexander Pope
- An Essay On Criticism poem – Alexander Pope
- The Rape of the Lock: Canto 4 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Rape of the Lock: Canto 3 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Rape of the Lock: Canto 2 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Rape of the Lock: Canto 1 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Rape of the Lock poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Iliad: Book VI (excerpt) poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Dying Christian to His Soul poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Three Gentle Shepherds poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Temple of Fame poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
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
