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:
- discovery.html
- Elegy for an Enemy by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The Arrival Of The Bee Box by Sylvia Plath
- I. The Witch of Coös by Robert Frost
- What is Poetry? by Mark Olynyk
- The Isle Of Portland poem – A. E. Housman
- Ольга Берггольц – Беатриче (строгая любовь)
- Muse poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Songs From “Prince Lucifer” II – Mother-Song poem – Alfred Austin
- Joy, Shipmate, Joy! by Walt Whitman
- Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Nomenclature
- Gone
- Владимир Высоцкий – Грусть моя, тоска моя
- Song—Behold, my love, how green the groves by Robert Burns
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
- Михаил Кузмин – В легкой лени
- Михаил Кузмин – В Канопе жизнь привольная
- Михаил Кузмин – В густом лесу мы дождь пережидали
- Михаил Кузмин – В гроте Венерином мы горим
- Михаил Кузмин – Уж не слышен конский топот
- Михаил Кузмин – Увы, любви своей не скрою
- Михаил Кузмин – Утро (Звезды побледнели)
- Михаил Кузмин – Утраченного чародейства
- Михаил Кузмин – Утешение
- Михаил Кузмин – Туманный день пройдет уныло
- Михаил Кузмин – Трое (Нас было трое)
- Михаил Кузмин – Три раза я его видел лицом к лицу
- Константин Ваншенкин – Городские костры
- Константин Ваншенкин – Ехал я в штабном автомобиле
- Константин Батюшков – На смерть И.П. Пнина
- Константин Батюшков – На поэмы Петру Великому
- Константин Батюшков – На книгу под названием «Смесь»
- Константин Батюшков – Мщение
- Константин Батюшков – Мои пенаты
- Константин Батюшков – Мечта
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
