A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
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:
- Огюст Барбье – Покинутый
- Альфред Теннисон – Прощание
- A Tale. June 1793 by William Cowper
- Cambodian Flower by Norma Martiri
- God Full Of Mercy by Yehuda Amichai
- Morning by Mark R Slaughter
- The Bell From Europe by Weldon Kees
- XII: Some Verses: Sonnet, To The Authour by William Alexander
- He Hears The Cry Of The Sedge by William Butler Yeats
- Astrophel and Stella: XV by Sir Philip Sidney
- The Sash by Sharon Olds
- All Night in Savannah the Wind Wrote Poetry by Aberjhani
- The Time I Like Best by Roger McGough
- Николай Заболоцкий – Горийская симфония
- Objector by William Stafford
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 Tree Of Knowledge
- The Thraldom
- The Thief
- The Spring
- The Request
- The Praise Of Pindar In Imitation Of Horace His Second Ode Book 4
- The Parting
- The Motto
- The Innocent Ill
- The Heart Breaking
- The Grasshopper
- The Given Love
- The Given Heart
- The Epicure
- The Despair
- The Chronicle
- The Change
- Sport
- Resolved To Be Loved
- Resolved Be Loved
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