Alexander Pope

"Say, lovely youth, that dost my heart command, Can Phaon's eyes forget his Sappho's hand? Must then her name the wretched writer prove, To thy reme"

"Phryne had talents for mankind, Open she was, and unconfin'd, Like some free port of trade: Merchants unloaded here their freight, And Agents from"

"First in these fields I try the sylvan strains, Nor blush to sport on Windsor's blissful plains: Fair Thames, flow gently from thy sacred spring, W"

"I That it is as great a fault to judge ill as to write ill, and a more dangerous one to the public. That a true Taste is as rare to be found as a tr"

"When Eastern lovers feed the funeral fire,     On the same pile the faithful pair expire.     Here pitying Heaven that virtue mutual found,"

"ARGUMENT.     OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO SOCIETY.     I. The whole universe one system of society, ver. 7, &c. Nothing mad"

"Authors are judged by strange capricious rules;     The great ones are thought mad, the small ones fools:     Yet sure the best are most severel"

"1 Ye Lords and Commons, men of wit     And pleasure about town,     Read this, ere you translate one bit     Of books of high renown.     2 B"

"I've often wish'd that I had clear,     For life, six hundred pounds a-year,     A handsome house to lodge a friend,     A river at my garden's"

"In vain you boast Poetic Names of yore, And cite those Sapho's we admire no more: Fate doom'd the Fall of ev'ry Female Wit, But doom'd it then when"

"I.--PREFACE     PREFIXED TO THE FIVE FIRST IMPERFECT EDITIONS OF THE DUNCIAD, IN THREE     BOOKS, PRINTED AT DUBLIN AND LONDON, IN OCTAVO AND D"

"Say, lovely youth, that dost my heart command,     Can Phaon's eyes forget his Sappho's hand?     Must then her name the wretched writer prove,"

"[From the 'Dunciad', Book IV]     In vain, in vain--the all-composing Hour     Resistless falls: the Muse obeys the Pow'r.     She comes! she com"

"Close by those meads, for ever crown'd with flow'rs, Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow'rs, There stands a structure of majestic frame,"

"Here shunning idleness at once and praise,     This radiant pile nine rural sisters[130] raise;     The glittering emblem of each spotless dame,"

"OCCASIONED BY HIS DIALOGUES ON MEDALS.[54]     See the wild waste of all-devouring years!     How Rome her own sad sepulchre appears,     With"

"Under this marble, or under this sill,     Or under this turf, or e'en what they will;     Whatever an heir, or a friend in his stead,     Or a"

"Few words are best; I wish you well:     Bethel, I'm told, will soon be here;     Some morning walks along the Mall,     And evening friends, w"

"Happy the man, whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air In his own ground. Whose herds with milk, whose"

"Here rests a woman, good without pretence,     Blest with plain reason, and with sober sense:     No conquests she, but o'er herself, desired,"

"Est brevitate opus, ut currat sententia, neu se Impediat verbis lassas onerantibus aures: Et sermone opus est modo tristi, saepe jocoso, Defendente"

"Thy forests, Windsor! and thy green retreats, At once the Monarch's and the Muse's seats, Invite my lays. Be present, sylvan maids! Unlock your spr"

"TO LORD BOLINGBROKE.     St John, whose love indulged my labours past,     Matures my present, and shall bound my last!     Why will you break"

"Kneller, by Heaven, and not a master, taught,     Whose art was Nature, and whose pictures Thought;     Now for two ages having snatch'd from Fa"

"In that soft season, when descending show'rs Call forth the greens, and wake the rising flow'rs; When op'ning buds salute the welcome day, And eart"

"'Ludentis speciem dabit, et torquebitur.'     --HOR.     Dear Colonel,[155] Cobham's and your country's friend!     You love a verse, take su"

"IN THE YEAR 1715.     1 Dear, damn'd, distracting town, farewell!     Thy fools no more I'll tease:     This year in peace, ye critics, dwell,"

"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan The proper study of Mankind is Man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A Being darkly wise, and r"

"Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos; Sedjuvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis. (Martial, Epigrams 12.84) What dire offence from am'rous caus"

"What's fame with men, by custom of the nation,     Is call'd, in women, only reputation:     About them both why keep we such a pother?     Par"

"What god, what genius did the pencil move,     When Kneller painted these?     'Twas friendship, warm as Phoebus, kind as Love,     And strong"

"How much, egregious Moore, are we      Deceived by shows and forms!     Whate'er we think, whate'er we see,      All humankind are worms."

"Happy the man, whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air, In his own ground. Whose heards with milk, whos"

"ARGUMENT.     The king being proclaimed, the solemnity is graced with public games and sports of various kinds; not instituted by the hero, as b"

"Ne Rubeam, Pingui donatus Munere (Horace, Epistles II.i.267) While you, great patron of mankind, sustain The balanc'd world, and open all the main;"

"Goddess of woods, tremendous in the chase,     To mountain wolves and all the savage race,     Wide o'er th' aerial vault extend thy sway,"

"Semichorus. Oh Tyrant Love! hast thou possest The prudent, learn'd, and virtuous breast? Wisdom and wit in vain reclaim, And Arts but soften us to"

"Ozell, at Sanger's call, invoked his Muse,     For who to sing for Sanger could refuse?     His numbers such as Sanger's self might use.     Re"

"SATIRES AND EPISTLES OF HORACE IMITATED. -     ADVERTISEMENT.     The occasion of publishing these 'Imitations' was the clamour raised on so"

"1 Yes, I beheld the Athenian queen Descend in all her sober charms; 'And take,' she said, and smiled serene, 'Take at this hand celestial arms: 2 'Sec"

"'Quid vetat et nosmet Lucili scripta legentes Quaerere, num illius, num rerum dura negarit Versiculos natura magis factos, et euntes Mollius?' HOR. Sa"

""Let such teach others, who themselves excel,         And censure freely who have written well.""

"TO DR JONATHAN SWIFT. ARGUMENT. The proposition, the invocation, and the inscription. Then the original of the great empire of Dulness, and cause of t"

"So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy song,     As had drawn both the beasts and their Orpheus along:     But such is thy avarice, and such i"

""Sir, I admit your general rule, That every poet is a fool. But you yourself may serve to show it, Every fool is not a poet.""

"1 In beauty or wit,     No mortal as yet     To question your empire has dared;     But men of discerning     Have thought that in learning"

"The playful smiles around the dimpled mouth,     That happy air of majesty and truth,     So would I draw: but, oh! 'tis vain to try,     My na"

"In these deep solitudes and awful cells, Where heavnly-pensive contemplation dwells, And ever-musing melancholy reigns; What means this tumult in"

"A Shepherd's Boy (he seeks no better name) Led forth his flocks along the silver Thame, Where dancing sun-beams n the waters play'd, And verdant al"

"CARDELIA. The basset-table spread, the tallier come; Why stays Smilinda in the dressing-room? Rise, pensive nymph, the tallier waits for you! SMILINDA"

"He said, and pass'd with sad presaging heart To seek his spouse, his soul's far dearer part; At home he sought her, but he sought in vain: She, wit"

"Here lies Lord Coningsby--be civil!     The rest God knows--perhaps the Devil."

"In amaze Lost I gaze! Can our eyes Reach thy size! May my lays Swell with praise, Worthy thee! Worthy me! Muse, inspire All thy fire! Bards of old Of"

"Fair charmer, cease! nor make your voice's prize,     A heart resign'd, the conquest of your eyes:     Well might, alas! that threaten'd vessel"

"What is prudery?     'Tis a bledam,     Seen with wit and beauty seldom.     'Tis a fear that starts at shadows.     Tis, (no, 'tisn't) like"

"1 Yes, I beheld the Athenian queen      Descend in all her sober charms;     'And take,' she said, and smiled serene,     'Take at this hand ce"

"ADVERTISEMENT.          In reading several passages of the Prophet Isaiah, which foretell the coming of Christ and the felicities attending it,"

"Thy relics, Rowe, to this fair urn we trust,     And sacred place by Dryden's awful dust:     Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies,     To"

"The fair Pomona flourish'd in his reign;     Of all the virgins of the sylvan train     None taught the trees a nobler race to bear,     Or mor"

"To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,     To raise the genius, and to mend the heart;     To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold,     L"