The Riddle of the World poem – Alexander Pope

A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) , the greatest English poet of “Augustan” or Georgian period

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,

A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:

With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,

With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride,

He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;

In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;

In doubt his mind and body to prefer;

Born but to die, and reas’ning but to err;

Whether he thinks to little, or too much;

Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus’d;

Still by himself, abus’d or disabus’d;

Created half to rise and half to fall;

Great Lord of all things, yet a prey to all,

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl’d;

The glory, jest and riddle of the world.

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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 

• Slant by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Named by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Landscape At The End Of The Century by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• I Come Home Wanting To Touch Everyone by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Essay On The Personal by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Biography In The First Person by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• At The Smithville Methodist Church by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Allegory Of The Cave by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• The White Peacock by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Quality of Courage by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Innovator by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Hemp by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The General Public by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Fiddling Wood by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Drug-Shop, or, Endymion in Edmonstoun by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The City Revisited by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Breaking Point by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• Talk by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• Road and Hills by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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.

 

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