A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) , the greatest English poet of “Augustan” or Georgian period
She said, and for her lost Calanthis sighs,
When the fair Consort of her son replies.
“Since you a servant’s ravish’d form bemoan,
And kindly sigh for sorrows not your own;
Let me (if tears and grief permit) relate
A nearer woe, a sister’s stranger fate.
No Nymph of all OEchalia could compare
For beauteous form with Dryope the fair,
Her tender mother’s only hope and pride,
(Myself the offspring of a second bride)
This Nymph compress’d by him who rules the day,
Whom Delphi and the Delian isle obey,
Andraemon lov’d; and, bless’d in all those charms
That pleas’d a God, succeeded to her arms.
“A lake there was, with shelving banks around,
Whose verdant summit fragrant myrtles crown’d.
These shades, unknowing of the fates, she sought,
And to the Naiads flow’ry garlands brought;
Her smiling babe (a pleasing charge) she prest
Within her arms, and nourish’d at her breast.
Not distant far, a wat’ry Lotos grows,
The spring was new, and all the verdant boughs
Adorn’d with blossoms promis’d fruits that vie
In glowing colours with the Tyrian dye:
Of these she cropp’d to please her infant son,
And I myself the same rash act had done:
But lo! I saw, (as near her side I stood)
The violated blossoms drop with blood;
Upon the tree I cast a frightful look;
The trembling tree with sudden horror shook.
Lotis the nymph (if rural tales be true)
As from Priapus’ lawless lust she flew,
Forsook her form; and fixing here became
A flow’ry plant, which still preserves her name.
“This change unknown, astonish’d at the sight
My trembling sister strove to urge her flight,
And first the pardon of the nymphs implor’d,
And those offended sylvan powers ador’d:
But when she backward would have fled, she found
Her stiff’ning feet were rooted in the ground:
In vain to free her fasten’d feet she strove,
And as she struggles, only moves above;
She feels th’ encroaching bark around her grow
By quick degrees, and cover all below:
Surpris’d at this, her trembling hand she heaves
To rend her hair, the shooting leaves are seen
To rise, and shade her with a sudden green.
The child Amphissus, to her bosom prest,
Perceiv’d a colder and a harder breast,
And found the springs, that ne’er till then deny’d
Their milky moisture, on a sudden dry’d.
I saw, unhappy! what I now relate,
And stood the helpless witness of thy fate,
Embrac’d thy boughs, thy rising bark delay’d,
There wish’d to grow, and mingle shade with shade.
“Behold Andraemon and th’ unhappy sire
Appear, and for their Dryope enquire;
A springing tree for Dryope they find,
And print warm kisses on the panting rind.
Prostrate, with tears their kindred plant bedew,
And close embrace as to the roots they grew,
The face was all that now remain’d of thee,
No more a woman, nor yet quite a tree;
Thy branches hung with humid pearls appear,
From ev’ry leaf distils a trickling tear,
And straight a voice, while yet a voice remains,
Thus thro’ the trembling boughs in sighs complains.
“‘If to the wretched any faith be giv’n,
I swear by all th’ unpitying pow’rs of heav’n,
No wilful crime this heavy vengeance bred;
In mutual innocence our lives we led:
If this be false, let these new greens decay,
Let sounding axes lop my limbs away,
And crackling flames on all my honours prey.
But from my branching arms this infant bear,
Let some kind nurse supply a mother’s care:
And to his mother let him oft be led,
Sport in her shades, and in her shades be fed;
Teach him, when first his infant voice shall frame
Imperfect words, and lisp his mother’s name,
To hail this tree; and say with weeping eyes,
Within this plant my hapless parent lies:
And when in youth he seeks the shady woods,
Oh, let him fly the crystal lakes and floods,
Nor touch the fatal flow’rs; but, warn’d by me,
Believe a Goddess shrin’d in ev’ry tree.
My sire, my sister, and my spouse farewell!
If in your breasts or love, or pity dwell,
Protect your plant, nor let my branches feel
The browsing cattle or the piercing steel.
Farewell! and since I cannot bend to join
My lips to yours, advance at least to mine.
My son, thy mother’s parting kiss receive,
While yet thy mother has a kiss to give.
I can no more; the creeping rind invades
My closing lips, and hides my head in shades:
Remove your hands, the bark shall soon suffice
Without their aid to seal these dying eyes.’
“She ceas’d at once to speak, and ceas’d to be;
And all the nymph was lost within the tree;
Yet latent life thro’ her new branches reign’d,
And long the plant a human heat retain’d.”
A few random poems:
- Hound Voice by William Butler Yeats
- Andromeda poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Icicles round a Tree in Dumfriesshire by Ruth Padel
- Николай Гумилев – Лаос
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Собачий пир
- How a Little Girl Danced by Vachel Lindsay
- any_man_speaks.html
- Владимир Высоцкий – Знать бы все до конца бы и сразу б
- A Wintry Picture (II) poem – Alfred Austin
- On A World Of Imaginary & Freedom Dwell by Nithin Purple
- Robert Burns: Verses Intended To Be Written Below A Noble Earl’s Picture:
- Epistle To Mrs Teresa Blount.[On Her Leaving The Town After The Coronation] poem – Alexander Pope
- Before Summer Rain by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Reply to the Threat of a Censorious Critic by Robert Burns
- The Dreadful Has Already Happened by Mark Strand
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
- Владимир Маяковский – Два опиума
- Владимир Маяковский – Два не совсем обычных случая
- Владимир Маяковский – Два гренадера и один адмирал
- Владимир Маяковский – Два Берлина
- Владимир Маяковский – Дурацкий сон (РОСТА №234)
- Владимир Маяковский – Думай об армии (РОСТА №873)
- Владимир Маяковский – Дожмем! В России буржуазия побеждена… (РОСТА №841)
- Владимир Маяковский – Донецкий шахтер голодает… (РОСТА №619)
- Владимир Маяковский – Домой
- Владимир Маяковский – Дом Герцена
- Владимир Маяковский – Долой волокиту! Да здравствует революционная инициатива! (РОСТА № 493 )
- Владимир Маяковский – Долой мешечников (РОСТА №525)
- Владимир Маяковский – Долг Украине
- Владимир Маяковский – Добьем! (РОСТА №745)
- Владимир Маяковский – Для Донбасса формируется поезд с подарками (РОСТА №938)
- Владимир Маяковский – Для чего оттягивают паны мириться?.. (РОСТА №264)
- Владимир Маяковский – Детский театр из собственной квартирки
- Владимир Маяковский – Дешевая распродажа
- Владимир Маяковский – День в маевочку мою… (Главполитпросвет №151)
- Владимир Маяковский – Дело красноармейцев драться… (РОСТА №336)
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
Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744) was a a post-Restoration English poet and satirist. He is a poet of the (British) Augustan period and one of its greatest artistic exponents.