Alexander Pope: Selected Poetry and Prose

So when a peasant to his garden brings Soft rills of water from the bubbling springs, And calls the floods from high, to bless h ...

Crossing a ford, the torrent sweeps away, An unregarded carcase to the sea.’ Neptune and Pallas haste to his relief, And thus in ...

And boldly bids the warring gods be foes! But nor that force, nor form divine to sight, Shall aught avail him, if our rage unite ...

Swift on the sedgy reeds the ruin preys; Along the margin winds the running blaze: The trees in flaming rows to ashes turn, The ...

Infest a god: the obedient flame withdraws: Again the branching streams begin to spread. And soft remurmur in their wonted bed. ...

The palace in a woody vale they found, High raised of stone; a shaded space around; 30 Where mountain wolves and brindled lions ...

Head, face, and members, bristle into swine: Still cursed with sense, their mind remains alone, And their own voice affrights th ...

Or see the wretched for whose loss we mourn. With what remains from certain ruin fly, And save the few not fated yet to die.’ I ...

But swear her first by those dread oaths that tie The powers below, the blessed in the sky; Lest to thee naked secret fraud be m ...

Sheathe thy bright sword, and join our hands in peace! Let mutual joys our mutual trust combine, And love, and love-born confide ...

With copious water the bright vase supplies A silver laver of capacious size. I washed. The table in fair order spread. They hea ...

Felt pity enter, and sustained her part. ‘Son of Laertes!’ (then the queen began) ‘Oh much-enduring, much-experienced man! Haste ...

Or wolf-like howl away the midnight hour In dreadful watch around the magic bower? Remember Cyclops, and his bloody deed; The le ...

Her kind entreaty moved the general breast; Tired with long toil, we willing sunk to rest. We plied the banquet, and the bowl we ...

intent of its author. The Odyssey is a moral and political work, instructive to all degrees of men and filled with images, examp ...

description even of a low action. There are numerous instances of this both in Homer and Virgil, and perhaps those natural passa ...

was inspiration indeed; he is not so much an imitator as an instrument of Nature; and ’tis not so just to say that he speaks fro ...

upon that particular point on which the bent of each argument turns or the force of each motive depends. This is perfectly amazi ...

’Tis but the funeral of the former year. 10 Let joy or ease, let affluence or content, And the gay conscience of a life well spe ...

Calmly he looked on either life, and here Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear; From Nature’s temperate feast rose satisfied, ...