A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
As some fond virgin, whom her mother’s care
Drags from the town to wholesome country air,
Just when she learns to roll a melting eye,
And hear a spark, yet think no danger nigh;
From the dear man unwilling she must sever,
Yet takes one kiss before she parts for ever:
Thus from the world fair Zephalinda flew,
Saw others happy, and with sighs withdrew;
Not that their pleasures caused her discontent,
She sigh’d not that they staid, but that she went.
She went to plain-work, and to purling brooks,
Old-fashion’d halls, dull aunts, and croaking rooks:
She went from opera, park, assembly, play,
To morning-walks, and prayers three hours a-day:
To part her time ‘twixt reading and bohea,
To muse, and spill her solitary tea;
Or o’er cold coffee trifle with the spoon,
Count the slow clock, and dine exact at noon;
Divert her eyes with pictures in the fire,
Hum half a tune, tell stories to the ‘squire;
Up to her godly garret after seven,
There starve and pray, for that’s the way to heaven.
Some ‘squire, perhaps, you take delight to rack;
Whose game is whist, whose treat, a toast in sack;
Who visits with a gun, presents you birds,
Then gives a smacking buss, and cries–No words!
Or with his hound comes hallooing from the stable,
Makes love with nods, and knees beneath a table;
Whose laughs are hearty, though his jests are coarse,
And loves you best of all things–but his horse.
In some fair evening, on your elbow laid,
You dream of triumphs in the rural shade;
In pensive thought recall the fancied scene,
See coronations rise on every green;
Before you pass the imaginary sights
Of lords, and earls, and dukes, and garter’d knights,
While the spread fan o’ershades your closing eyes;
Then give one flirt, and all the vision flies.
Thus vanish sceptres, coronets, and balls,
And leave you in lone woods, or empty walls!
So when your slave, at some dear idle time,
(Not plagued with headaches, or the want of rhyme)
Stands in the streets, abstracted from the crew,
And while he seems to study, thinks of you;
Just when his fancy paints your sprightly eyes,
Or sees the blush of soft Parthenia rise,
Gay pats my shoulder, and you vanish quite,
Streets, chairs, and coxcombs rush upon my sight;
Vex’d to be still in town, I knit my brow,
Look sour, and hum a tune, as you do now.
A few random poems:
- Владимир Высоцкий – Ох, где был я вчера
- The King of Yellow Butterflies by Vachel Lindsay
- All Things Can Tempt Me by William Butler Yeats
- An Ode of the Birth of our Saviour by Robert Herrick
- Yin and Yang by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Epithalamion poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Robert Burns: On The Death Of Robert Dundas, Esq., Of Arniston,: Late Lord President of the Court of Session.
- Last Poem by Ted Berrigan
- A Historical Breakfast by Russell Edson
- Ольга Берггольц – Пусть голосуют дети
- Natural History by Sylvia Plath
- Olney Hymn 54: Love Constraining To Obedience by William Cowper
- Как хорошо иметь подругу
- Валерий Брюсов – К портрету К.Д. Бальмонта
- Олег Мехов – Ах, у нашего Антошки
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
- Вера Звягинцева – Шафрановым загаром
- Вера Звягинцева – Психея
- Вера Звягинцева – Пойдёте пешком на кладбище
- Вера Звягинцева – Околдовано сердце моё
- Вера Звягинцева – Не пастушка и не Психея
- Вера Звягинцева – На смерть Есенина
- Вера Звягинцева – Моя любовь к Армении похожа
- Вера Звягинцева – Летите, летите зелёные долы
- Вера Звягинцева – Карусель
- Вера Звягинцева – Качаешься в гробу стеклянном
- Вера Звягинцева – Другу-переводчику
- Вера Звягинцева – А если ты любишь не можешь
- Вергилий – Скопа
- Вергилий – Лидия
- Вергилий – Георгики
- Вергилий – Буколики
- Вероника Тушнова – Молчание
- Вероника Тушнова – Мне говорят, нету такой любви
- Вероника Тушнова – Мать
- Вероника Тушнова – Люблю
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