A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) , the greatest English poet of “Augustan” or Georgian period
When simple Macer, now of high renown,
First fought a Poet’s Fortune in the Town,
‘Twas all th’ Ambition his high soul could feel,
To wear red stockings, and to dine with Steele.
Some Ends of verse his Betters might afford,
And gave the harmless fellow a good word.
Set up with these he ventur’d on the Town,
And with a borrow’d Play, out-did poor Crown.
There he stopp’d short, nor since has write a tittle,
But has the wit to make the most of little;
Like stunted hide-bound Trees, that just have got
Sufficient sap at once to bear and rot.
Now he begs Verse, and what he gets commends,
Not of the Wits his foes, but Fools his friends.
So some coarse Country Wench, almost decay’d,
Trudges to town, and first turns Chambermaid;
Awkward and supple, each devoir to pay;
She flatters her good Lady twice a day;
Thought wond’rous honest, tho’ of mean degree,
And strangely lik’d for her Simplicity:
In a translated Suit, then tries the Town,
With borrow’d Pins, and Patches not her own:
But just endur’d the winter she began,
And in four months a batter’d Harridan.
Now nothing left, but wither’d, pale, and shrunk,
To bawd for others, and go shares with Punk.
A few random poems:
- The Indian To His Love by William Butler Yeats
- Circulation by Raymond Carver
- Orlando Furioso Canto 17 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Ariel by Sylvia Plath
- The Nomad039s Vision Ode To A Skylark Dressed In Black
- Омар Хайям – Не у тех, кто во прах государства поверг
- The Ballad of East and West by Rudyard Kipling
- Epitaph On Mr. Chester Of Chicheley by William Cowper
- Владимир Высоцкий – Не могу ни выпить, ни забыться
- The Peasant’s Return by William Barnes
- Just Thinking by William Stafford
- And We Shall Not Get Excited by Yehuda Amichai
- Иван Крылов – Лев состаревшийся (Басня)
- I Have A Rendezvous With Death
- For The Country by Philip Levine
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 Jungle Flower
- The Hut
- The Hospital On The Shore
- The Garden Of Kama Kama The Indian Eros
- The Garden By The Bridge
- The First Wife
- The First Lover
- The Dying Prince
- The Convert
- The Cactus
- The Cactus Thicket
- The Bride
- The Aloe
- Syed Amir
- Surface Rights
- Surf Song
- Sunstroke
- Story Of Udaipore Told By Lalla Ji The Priest
- Story Of Lilavanti
- Story By Lalla Ji The Priest
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.