Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744)
Considered one of the greatest English poets of the eighteenth century.
Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.
They shift the moving toyshop of their heart.
Never find fault with the absent.
Well, if our author in the wife offends
He has a husband that will make amends;
He draws him gentle, tender, and forgiving,
And sure such kind good creatures may be living.
This is the Jew
That Shakespeare drew.
Oft, as in airy rings they skim the heath,
The clam'rous lapwings feel the leaden death;
Oft, as the mounting larks their notes prepare,
They fall, and leave their little lives in air.
Coffee, which makes the politician wise,
And see through all things with his half-shut eyes.
The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.
The flying Rumours gather'd as they roll'd,
Scarce any Tale was sooner heard than told;
And all who told it, added something new,
And all who heard it, made Enlargements too,
In ev'ry Ear it spread, on ev'ry Tongue it grew.
On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore
Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.
The garlands fade, the vows are worn away;
So dies her love, and so my hopes decay.
How loved, how honored once, avails thee not,
To whom related, or by whom begot;
A heap of dust alone remains of thee;
'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!
At every word a reputation dies.
True politeness consists in being easy one's self, and in making every one about one as easy as one can.
If I am right, Thy grace import
Still in the right to stay;
If I am wrong, oh teach my heart
To find that better way!
Father of all! in every age,
In every clime adored,
By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!
Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes;
The glorious fault of Angels and of Gods.
Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.
Let spades be trumps! she said, and trumps they were.