A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) , the greatest English poet of “Augustan” or Georgian period
Semichorus.
Oh Tyrant Love! hast thou possest
The prudent, learn’d, and virtuous breast?
Wisdom and wit in vain reclaim,
And Arts but soften us to feel thy flame.
Love, soft intruder, enters here,
But ent’ring learns to be sincere.
Marcus with blushes owns he loves,
And Brutus tenderly reproves.
Why, Virtue, dost thou blame desire,
Which Nature has imprest?
Why, Nature, dost thou soonest fire
The mild and gen’rous breast?
Chorus.
Love’s purer flames the Gods approve;
The Gods and Brutus bent to love:
Brutus for absent Portia sighs,
And sterner Cassius melts at Junia’s eyes.
What is loose love? a transient gust,
Spent in a sudden storm of lust,
A vapour fed from wild desire,
A wand’ring, self-consuming fire,
But Hymen’s kinder flames unite;
And burn for ever one;
Chaste as cold Cynthia’s virgin light,
Productive as the Sun.
Semichorus.
Oh source of ev’ry social tie,
United wish, and mutual joy!
What various joys on one attend,
As son, as father, brother husband, friend?
Whether his hoary sire he spies,
While thousand grateful thoughts arise;
Or meets his spouse’s fonder eye;
Or views his smiling progeny;
What tender passions take their turns,
What home-felt raptures move?
His heart now melts, now leaps, now burns,
With rev’rence, hope, and love.
Chorus.
Hence guilty joys, distastes, surmises,
Hence false tears, deceits, disguises,
Dangers, doubts, delays, surprises;
Fires that scorch, yet dare not shine
Purest love’s unwasting treasure,
Constant faith, fair hope, long leisure,
Days of ease, and nights of pleasure;
Sacred Hymen! these are thine.
A few random poems:
- The Masks of Love
- Miracles by Paul Hostovsky
- Dear Traffic Signal by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Близ берегов
- My Beach by Robert Saltzman
- Rite of Spring by Seamus Heaney
- Николай Гумилев – Заводи
- To One False In Love by Sappho
- xai_kou.html
- My Friend, Come In These Rains — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Nell Barnes by William Henry Davies
- The Evening Soup, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: La Soupe du soir by T. Wignesan
- Before Sleep poem – Ezra Pound poems
- In January by Ted Kooser
- Владимир Британишский – Молодой Толстой
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
- Иннокентий Анненский – Еврипид. Геракл (перевод)
- Илья Зданевич – Пабло Пикассо
- Илья Зданевич – Ослиный Бох
- Илья Зданевич – Опять на жизненную скуку
- Илья Зданевич – Галоша
- Илья Зданевич – Экспромт
- Илья Эренбург – Жилье в горах, как всякое жилье
- Илья Эренбург – Я знаю, будет золотой и долгий
- Илья Эренбург – Я так любил тебя, до грубых шуток
- Илья Эренбург – Я слышу всё, и горестные шепоты
- Илья Эренбург – Я помню, давно уже я уловил
- Илья Эренбург – Я не трубач, труба
- Илья Эренбург – Я бы мог прожить совсем иначе
- Илья Эренбург – Взвился рыжий, ближе
- Илья Эренбург – Вы приняли меня в изысканной гостиной
- Илья Эренбург – Ода
- Илья Эренбург – О Москве
- Илья Эренбург – Легкий сон
- Илья Эренбург – Круг
- Илона Грошева – Мой друг Евгений
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.