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:
- Felixstowe, or The Last of Her Order poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- American Feuillage. by Walt Whitman
- every_hour_henceforth.html
- Delia: An Ode by Robert Burns
- Николай Заболоцкий – Вечерний бар
- Hand Dark
- Cats by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
- State of Siege by Mahmoud Darwish
- The Answer by Sara Teasdale
- The Jacket by Rudyard Kipling
- A First Confession by William Butler Yeats
- Never Try To Trick Me With A Kiss by Sylvia Plath
- Passion by Sera Jacob
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись 3 к статуе Петра Великого
- Paradise Lost: Book 06 poem – John Milton poems
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
- Robert Burns: The Braes O’ Killiecrankie:
- Robert Burns: The Battle Of Sherramuir:
- Robert Burns: Highland Harry Back Again:
- Robert Burns: I Gaed A Waefu’ Gate Yestreen:
- Robert Burns: Ca’ The Yowes To The Knowes:
- Robert Burns: Willie Brew’d A Peck O’ Maut:
- Robert Burns: Extemporaneous Effusion: On being appointed to an Excise division.
- Robert Burns: Extemporaneous Effusion: On being appointed to an Excise division.
- Robert Burns: Sonnet On Receiving A Favour: Addressed to Robert Graham, Esq. of Fintry.
- Robert Burns: Presentation Stanzas To Correspondents:
- Robert Burns: The Kirk Of Scotland’s Alarm:
- Robert Burns: Epigram On Francis Grose The Antiquary:
- Robert Burns: On The Late Captain Grose’s Peregrinations Thro’ Scotland: Collecting The Antiquities Of That Kingdom
- Robert Burns: My Eppie Adair:
- Robert Burns: Whistle O’er The Lave O’t:
- Robert Burns: The Laddie’s Dear Sel’:
- Robert Burns: Carle, An The King Come:
- Robert Burns: Tam Glen:
- Robert Burns: My Love, She’s But A Lassie Yet:
- Robert Burns: John Anderson, My Jo:
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
