A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Heav’n from all creatures hides the book of fate,
All but the page prescrib’d, their present state:
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know:
Or who could suffer being here below?
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed today,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas’d to the last, he crops the flow’ry food,
And licks the hand just rais’d to shed his blood.
Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv’n,
That each may fill the circle mark’d by Heav’n:
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl’d,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.
Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore.
What future bliss, he gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor’d mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul, proud science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk, or milky way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv’n,
Behind the cloud topp’d hill, an humbler heav’n;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac’d,
Some happier island in the wat’ry waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
To be, contents his natural desire,
He asks no angel’s wing, no seraph’s fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky.
A few random poems:
- Sonnet Ix
- To – – – – –
- A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M. poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Troops by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Four Winds poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Bobber by Raymond Carver
- Иван Мятлев – Бывало
- Venus Transiens poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Mysterious Cat by Vachel Lindsay
- So Long! by Precious Tahula
- Incense by Vachel Lindsay
- rice_pudding.html
- Song—Behold, my love, how green the groves by Robert Burns
- The Gift of the Sea by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song Of Autumn
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
- A June-Tide Echo poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Greek Girl poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Farewell poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Cross-Road Epitaph poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Vacant Lot With Pokeweed poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Sun Underfoot Among The Sundews poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Syrinx poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Salvage poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- On The Disadvantages Of Central Heating poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Nothing Stays Put poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Fog poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Exmoor poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Vacant Lot With Pokeweed poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Easter Morning poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Beach Glass poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Sun Underfoot Among The Sundews poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Silence poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Syrinx poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Salvage poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Hermit Thrush poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
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