A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
I.
Silence! coeval with Eternity;
Thou wert, ere Nature’s-self began to be,
‘Twas one vast Nothing, all, and all slept fast in thee.
II.
Thine was the sway, ere heav’n was form’d, or earth,
Ere fruitful Thought conceiv’d creation’s birth,
Or midwife Word gave aid, and spoke the infant forth.
III.
Then various elements, against thee join’d,
In one more various animal combin’d,
And fam’d the clam’rous race of busy Human-kind.
IV.
The tongue mov’d gently first, and speech was low,
‘Till wrangling Science taught it noise and show,
And wicked Wit arose, thy most abusive foe.
V.
But rebel Wit deserts thee oft’ in vain;
Lost in the maze of words he turns again,
And seeks a surer state, and courts thy gentle reign.
VI.
Afflicted Sense thou kindly dost set free,
Oppress’d with argumental tyranny,
And routed Reason finds a safe retreat in thee.
VII.
With thee in private modest Dulness lies,
And in thy bosom lurks in Thought’s disguise;
Thou varnisher of Fools, and cheat of all the Wise!
VIII.
Yet thy indulgence is by both confest;
Folly by thee lies sleeping in the breast,
And ’tis in thee at last that Wisdom seeks for rest.
IX.
Silence the knave’s repute, the whore’s good name,
The only honour of the wishing dame;
Thy very want of tongue makes thee a kind of Fame.
X.
But could’st thou seize some tongues that now are free,
How Church and State should be oblig’d to thee!
At Senate, and at Bar, how welcome would’st thou be!
XI.
Yet speech ev’n there, submissively withdraws,
From rights of subjects, and the poor man’s cause:
Then pompous Silence reigns, and stills the noisy Laws.
XII.
Past services of friends, good deeds of foes,
What Fav’rites gain, and what the Nation owes,
Fly the forgetful world, and in thy arms repose.
XIII.
The country wit, religion of the town,
The courtier’s learning, policy o’ th’ gown,
Are best by thee express’d; and shine in thee alone.
XIV.
The parson’s cant, the lawyer’s sophistry,
Lord’s quibble, critic’s jest; all end in thee,
All rest in peace at last, and sleep eternally.
A few random poems:
- Character Of Charles Brown poem – John Keats poems
- The rainy Pleiads wester poem – A. E. Housman
- A New Age by W H Auden
- Оливер Голдсмит – Опровержение логики
- Stanzas Written In My Pocket Copy Of Thomson’s “Castle Of Indolence” by William Wordsworth
- About The Sheltered Garden Ground by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Robert Burns: Extemporaneous Effusion: On being appointed to an Excise division.
- The Lamp by Sara Teasdale
- Robert Burns: The Bonie Wee Thing:
- Владимир Корнилов – Сорок лет спустя
- My Rival by Rudyard Kipling
- Champagne 1914 15
- The First Chantey by Rudyard Kipling
- last_word_to_childhood.html
- Old Memory by William Butler Yeats
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
- Funeral Day Thoughts by Sudheesh Vs
- Flying Home by Sudeep Sen
- Do You Remember 1914 Grandad? by Steve Sant
- Crossroads by Suchi Gaur
- Closure by Suchi Gaur
- Borrowed Verses by Subhash Misra
- A Different September by Steve Sant
- Zen-moment by Sunil Sharma
- Young mother by Sunil Sharma
- Winter dusk at the railway halt by Sunil Sharma
- Valley-dawn by Sunil Sharma
- The workers by Sunil Sharma
- The light from an earthen lamp by Sunil Sharma
- The humble earthen lamp by Sunil Sharma
- The gypsy song by Sunil Sharma
- The Chant of the Indignant of the World by Sunil Sharma
- Surreal landscapes by Sunil Sharma
- To a son abroad by Sunil Sharma
- Relations by Sunil Sharma
- Pharaohs, Protests and Public by Sunil Sharma
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
