A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
I.
In ev’ry Town, where Thamis rolls his Tyde,
A narrow pass there is, with Houses low;
Where ever and anon, the Stream is ey’d,
And many a Boat soft sliding to and fro.
There oft are heard the notes of Infant Woe,
The short thick Sob, loud Scream, and shriller Squall:
How can ye, Mothers, vex your Children so?
Some play, some eat, some cack against the wall,
And as they crouchen low, for bread and butter call.
II.
And on the broken pavement, here and there,
Doth many a stinking sprat and herring lie;
A brandy and tobacco shop is near,
And hens, and dogs, and hogs are feeding by;
And here a sailor’s jacket hangs to dry.
At ev’ry door are sun-burnt matrons seen,
Mending old nets to catch the scaly fry;
Now singing shrill, and scolding eft between;
Scolds answer foul-mouth’d scolds; bad neighbourhood I ween.
III.
The snappish cur, (the passengers’ annoy)
Close at my heel with yelping treble flies;
The whimp’ring girl, and hoarser-screaming boy,
Join to the yelping treble shrilling cries;
The scolding Quean to louder notes doth rise,
And her full pipes those shrilling cries confound;
To her full pipes the grunting hog replies;
The grunting hogs alarm the neighbours round,
And curs, girls, boys, and scolds, in the deep bass are drown’d.
IV.
Hard by a Sty, beneath a roof of thatch,
Dwelt Obloquy, who in her early days
Baskets of fish at Billingsgate did watch,
Cod, whiting, oyster, mackrel, sprat, or plaice:
There learn’d she speech from tongues that never cease.
Slander beside her, like a Mag-pie, chatters,
With Envy, (spitting Cat) dread foe to peace;
Like a curs’d Cur, Malice before her clatters,
And vexing ev’ry wight, tears clothes and all to tatters.
V.
Her dugs were mark’d by ev’ry Collier’s hand,
Her mouth was black as bull-dogs at the stall:
She scratch’d, bit, and spar’d ne lace ne band,
And bitch and rogue her answer was to all;
Nay, e’en the parts of shame by name would call:
Yea, when she passed by or lane or nook,
Would greet the man who turn’d him to the Wall,
And by his hand obscene the porter took,
Nor ever did askance like modest Virgin look.
VI.
Such place hath Deptford, navy-building town,
Woolwich and Wapping smelling strong of pitch;
Such Lambeth, envy of each band and gown,
And Twick’nam such, which fairer scenes enrich,
Grots, statues, urns, and Johnston’s Dog and Bitch,
Ne village is without, on either side,
All up the silver Thames, or all adown;
Ne Richmond’s self, from whose tall front are ey’d
Vales, spires, meandring streams, and Windsor’s tow’ry pride.
A few random poems:
- Even if I don’t hear your voice, I know by Vinko Kalinic
- You Felons on Trial in Courts. by Walt Whitman
- Portrait From The Infantry
- Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf by Roald Dahl
- Sonnet 51: Thus can my love excuse the slow offence by William Shakespeare
- Robert Burns: Duncan Davison :
- Solitude: An Ode poem – Alexander Pope
- Light The Festive Candles
- What Hidden Sweetness Is There by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Robert Burns: Epistle To Major Logan:
- Song—O Tibbie, I hae seen the day by Robert Burns
- Written In The Cottage Where Burns Was Born poem – John Keats poems
- Standardization
- On Time poem – John Milton poems
- My Aroma
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
- Наум Коржавин – Неужели птицы пели
- Наум Коржавин – Нет! Так я просто не уйду во мглу
- Наум Коржавин – Нелепые ваши затеи
- Наум Коржавин – Не верь, что ты поэта шире
- Наум Коржавин – Наверно, я не так на свете жил
- Наум Коржавин – На побывке
- Наум Коржавин – На друга-поэта
- Наум Коржавин – Мой ритм заглох
- Наум Коржавин – Мне без тебя так трудно жить
- Наум Коржавин – Меня, как видно, Бог не звал
- Наум Коржавин – Люди пашут каждый раз опять
- Наум Коржавин – Ленинград
- Наум Коржавин – Легкость
- Наум Коржавин – Комиссары
- Наум Коржавин – Кое-кому
- Наум Коржавин – Как ты мне изменяла
- Наум Коржавин – К моему двадцатипятилетию
- Наум Коржавин – Иван Калита
- Наум Коржавин – Иль впрямь я разлюбил свою страну?
- Наум Коржавин – Грустная самопародия
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
