University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
Alexander Pope: Minor poems

Edited by Norman Ault: Completed by John Butt
Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

collapse section 
[section]
  
A PARAPHRASE on Thomas a Kempis;
collapse section 
Verses in imitation of WALLER.
 I. 
I. Of the Lady who could not sleep in a stormy Night.
 II. 
II. Of her Picture.
 III. 
III. Of her Sickness.
 IV. 
IV. Of her walking in a Garden after a Shower.
 V. 
V. Of her Sighing.
collapse section 
Verses in imitation of COWLEY.
 I. 
I. Presenting a Lark.
 II. 
II. The River.
  
To the AUTHOR of a POEM, intitled, SUCCESSIO.
collapse section 
LINES from ALCANDER and the EARLY POEMS.
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
 III. 
III.
 IV. 
IV.
 V. 
V. On a lady's drinking the Bath-waters.
 VI. 
VI. The same lady goes into the Bath.
 VII. 
VII. The Metonymy.
 VIII. 
VIII. An Eye-witness of things never yet beheld by Man.
 IX. 
IX. How inimitably circumstantial is this [description] of a War-Horse!
 X. 
X. The Hyperbole.
 XI. 
XI. The Periphrasis
  
An Epistle to Henry Cromwell, Esq
  
EPIGRAM.
  
LETTER to CROMWELL.
  
ARGUS.
  
LINES
collapse section 
LINES Added to WYCHERLEY's Poems.
 I. 
I. SIMILITUDES.
 II. 
II. SIMILITUDES.
 III. 
III. LINES
 IV. 
IV. CONCLUSION of The Bill of Fare.
  
RONDEAU.
  
On the Statue of CLEOPATRA, made into a Fountain by Leo the Tenth.
  
PSALM XCI.
  
STANZA'S.
  
From BOETIUS, de cons. Philos.
collapse section 
COUPLETS & VERSICLES 1708–1710
 I. 
I. EPIGRAM.
 II. 
II. EPIGRAM.
 III. 
III. LINES.
  
HYMN of St. FRANCIS XAVIER.
collapse section 
LINES FROM The Critical Specimen.
 I. 
I. A Simile.
 II. 
II. A Rhapsody.
  
EPITAPH.
  
The Balance of Europe.
  
VERSES To be prefix'd before BERNARD LINTOT's New MISCELLANY.
  
VERSES Occasion'd by an &c. at the End of Mr. D'Urfy's Name in the Title to one of his Plays.
 I. 
I. Adriani morientis ad Animam,
  
On a LADY who P---st at the TRAGEDY of CATO; Occasion'd by an EPIGRAM on a LADY who wept at it.
  
PROLOGUE,
  
TWO OR THREE;
  
UPON A Girl of Seven Years old.
  
To BELINDA on the Rape of the Lock.
  
THE THREE gentle SHEPHERDS.
collapse section 
VERSES in the SCRIBLERIAN MANNER.
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
 III. 
III.
 IV. 
IV.
 V. 
V.
 VI. 
VI.
  
IMPROMPTU, To Lady Winchelsea.
  
To EUSTACE BUDGELL, Esq.
  
To a LADY with the Temple of Fame.
  
A Farewell to LONDON.
collapse section 
Four Poems from A KEY to the LOCK.
 I. 
I. To my much Honoured and Esteemed Friend, Mr. E. Barnivelt, Author of the Key to the Lock. An Anagram and Acrostick. By N. Castleton, A Well-willer to the Coalition of Parties.
 II. 
II. To the Ingenious Mr. E. Barnivelt.
 III. 
III. To my Ingenious Friend, the Author of the Key to the Lock.
 IV. 
IV. To the most Learned Pharmacopolitan, and Excellent Politician, Mr. Esdras Barnivelt.
collapse section 
CHARACTERS
 II. 
II. UMBRA.
 III. 
III. ATTICUS.
  
THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.
  
To Mr. John Moore,
  
A Roman Catholick Version OF THE FIRST PSALM,
  
IMITATION OF MARTIAL,
  
Written over a Study; out of Maynard.
  
SANDYS's GHOST:
  
EPIGRAM.
  
PROLOGUE TO THE Three Hours after Marriage.
  
THE COURT BALLAD.
collapse section 
EPIGRAMS, Occasion'd by An Invitation to Court.
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
 III. 
III.
 IV. 
IV.
 V. 
V.
 VI. 
VI.
  
VERSES Sent to Mrs. T. B. with his Works.
  
The PRAYER of BRUTUS.
  
A HYMN Written in WINDSOR Forest.
  
LINES to Lord BATHURST.
  
VERSES in the SCRIBLERIAN Manner.
collapse section 
THREE EPITAPHS On John Hewet and Sarah Drew .
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II. EPITAPH On John Hewet and Sarah Drew .
 III. 
III. EPITAPH On the Stanton-Harcourt Lovers.
  
ANSWER to Mrs. HOWE
  
A DIALOGUE.
  
On Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Portrait.
  
TO Sir Godfrey Kneller,
  
In behalf of Mr. SOUTHERNE. To the Duke of ARGYLE.
  
Lines from ACIS and GALATEA.
  
DUKE upon DUKE.
  
An Inscription upon a Punch-Bowl, in the South-Sea Year for a Club, chas'd withJupiter placing Callista in the Skies & Europa with the Bull.
  
To Mr. GAY,
collapse section 
COUPLETS & VERSICLES 1711–1720
 I. 
I. LINES
 II. 
II. LINES.
 III. 
III. COUPLET.
 IV. 
IV. Inscription.
 V. 
V. A Winter Piece.
 VI. 
VI. Lines suppressed at the End of the Epistle—
 VII. 
VII. Lines from Horace III. iv.
 VIII. 
VIII. EPITAPH
 IX. 
IX. Couplets on Wit.
 X. 
X. Lines on Curll .
 XI. 
XI. Imitation of Tibullus .
 XII. 
XII. Lines on Mr. Hatton 's Clocks.
  
To Mrs. M. B. on her Birth-day.
  
INSCRIPTION.
  
EPITAPH
  
On a certain Lady at Court.
  
LINES
  
Receipt to make Soup.
  
[Presentation Verses to Nathaniel Pigott]
  
The CAPON'S TALE:
  
THE DISCOVERY:
  
EPIGRAM, in a Maid of Honour's Prayer-Book.
collapse section 
Verses on GULLIVER's TRAVELS.
 I. 
I. To Quinbus Flestrin, the Man-Mountain.
 II. 
II. The Lamentation of Glumdalclitch, for the Loss of Grildrig.
 III. 
III. To Mr. Lemuel Gulliver ,
 IV. 
IV. Mary Gulliver to Captain Lemuel Gulliver.
 V. 
V. The Words of the KING of BROBDINGNAG,
  
EPITAPH
  
Fragment of a Satire.
  
SYLVIA,
  
LINES FROM The Art of Sinking.
  
VERSES
  
To the Right Honourable the Earl of OXFORD.
  
EPITAPH.
collapse section 
EPITAPHS
 I. 
I. Lord CONINGSBY's Epitaph.
 II. 
II. Applied to F. C.
collapse section 
EPIGRAMS from THE DUNCIAD. 1729–1730.
 I. 
I. [On a Translation of Æschylus.]
 II. 
II. On James Moore Smythe.
 III. 
III. On Roome.
 IV. 
IV. On Burnet and Ducket.
 V. 
V. On Shakespeare Restored.
 VI. 
VI. On his Busto.
 VII. 
VII. On Cibber.
collapse section 
COUPLETS & VERSICLES 1721–1730
 I. 
I. Verses to Mrs. Judith Cowper.
 II. 
II. Lines to Bolingbroke .
 III. 
III. LINES In Conclusion of a Satire.
 IV. 
IV. Inscriptio.
 V. 
V. CANTICLE
  
PROLOGUE TO SOPHONISBA. By a Friend.
  
EPIGRAM.
  
To MR. C.
collapse section 
EPIGRAMS.
 I. 
I. On J. M. S. Gent.
 II. 
II. On Mr. M---re's going to Law with Mr. Gilliver.
 III. 
III. [On J. M. S. Gent.]
 IV. 
IV. EPITAPH
 V. 
V. On the Candidates for the Laurel.
 VI. 
VI. On the Same.
 VII. 
VII. On DENNIS.
 VIII. 
VIII. Occasion'd by seeing some Sheets of Dr. B---tl*y's Edition of Milton's Paradise Lost.
  
LINES TO A FRIEND.
  
On the Countess of B--- cutting Paper.
  
HORACE, Satyr 4. Lib. 1. Paraphrased.
  
Wrote by Mr. P. in a Volume of Evelyn on Coins, presented to a painter by a parson.
  
THE SIX MAIDENS.
  
EPITAPH.
collapse section 
POEMS from Miscellanies. The Third Volume. 1732.
 I. 
I. Epitaph [of By-Words.]
 II. 
II. Epigram from the French.
 III. 
III.
 IV. 
IV. EPIGRAM.
collapse section 
The CRUX-EASTON Epigrams.
 I. 
I. On seeing the LADIES at Crux-Easton Walk in the Woods by the Grotto.
 II. 
II. Inscription on a Grotto of Shells at Crux-Easton the Work of Nine young Ladies.
  
To the Earl of Burlington asking who writ the Libels against him.
  
PROLOGUE, For the Benefit of Mr. DENNIS, 1733.
  
To Ld. Hervey & Lady Mary Wortley
  
[A CHARACTER]
collapse section 
EPIGRAMS Occasioned by Cibber's Verses in Praise of Nash.
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
  
EPITAPH.
  
EPIGRAM.
  
EPITAPH On John Knight.
  
BOUNCE TO FOP.
  
EPIGRAM.
  
SONNET
  
EPITAPH
  
On receiving from the Right Hon. the LADY FRANCES SHIRLEY A STANDISH AND TWO PENS
  
On lying in the Earl of ROCHESTER's Bed at ATTERBURY.
  
VERSES on a GROTTO by the River Thames at Twickenham, composed of Marbles, Spars, and Minerals.
  
EPIGRAM.
  
EPITAPH.
  
Verbatim from Boileau,
  
On the Benefactions in the late Frost, 1740.
collapse section 
COUPLETS & VERSICLES 1731–1740
 I. 
I. Lines from Horace.
 II. 
II. On Queen Caroline's Death-bed.
 III. 
III. On a Picture of Queen Caroline, drawn by Lady Burlington.
 IV. 
IV. LINES
 V. 
V. COUPLET
 VI. 
VI. On Dr. Alured Clarke
 VII. 
VII. COUPLET
 VIII. 
VIII. COUPLET.
 IX. 
IX. LINES
collapse section 
EPIGRAMS.
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
  
EPIGRAM.
  
TOM SOUTHERNE's Birth-day Dinner at LD. ORRERY's.
  
EPIGRAM
  
EPITAPH On Mr. ROWE.
  
EPIGRAM.
  
Fragment of Brutus, an Epic
  
Lines on BOUNCE.

collapse section Collapse All | Expand All expand section
previous section Alexander Pope: Minor poems
next section
56

II. SIMILITUDES.

Thus either Men in private useless Ease
Lose a dull Length of undeserving Days;
Or waste, for others Use, their restless Years
In busie Tumults, and in publick Cares,
And run precipitant, with Noise and Strife,
Into the vast Abyss of future Life;
Or others Ease and theirs alike destroy,
Their own Destruction by their Industry.
So Waters putrifie with Rest, and lose
At once their Motion, Sweetness, and their Use;
Or haste in headlong Torrents to the Main,
To lose themselves by what shou'd them maintain,
And in th'impetuous Course themselves the sooner drain:
Neglect their Native Channel, Neighb'ring Coast,
Abroad in foreign Service to be lost;
Or else their Streams, when hinder'd in their Course,
Quite o'er the Banks to their own Ruin force.
The Stream of Life shou'd more securely flow
In constant Motion, nor too swift nor slow,
And neither swell too high, nor sink too low;
Not always glide thro' gloomy Vales, and rove
('Midst Flocks and Shepherds) in the silent Grove;
But more diffusive in its wand'ring Race;
Serve peopled Towns, and stately Cities grace;
Around in sweet Meanders wildly range,
Kept fresh by Motion, and unchang'd by Change.
previous section Alexander Pope: Minor poems
next section