Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Popewas an 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his satirical verse, as well as for his translation of Homer. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet, he is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth21 May 1688
moving blow rocks
Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar. When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow: Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
nature school fool
Some are bewildered in the maze of schools, And some made coxcombs nature meant but fools.
philosophy men practice
A man of business may talk of philosophy; a man who has none may practice it.
music church vowels
As some to church repair, Not for the doctrine, but the music there. These equal syllables alone require, Though oft the ear the open vowels tire While expletives their feeble aid do join, And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.
strong asks provocation
Ask you what provocation I have had? The strong antipathy of good to bad.
passion clue found
Search then the ruling passion: This clue, once found, unravels all the rest.
happiness style hackney
What woeful stuff this madrigal would be, In some starved hackney sonneteer, or me! But let a lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens! how the style refines!
wings air lists
No more the mounting larks, while Daphne sings, Shall, list'ning, in mid-air suspend their wings.
sunday shining sabbath
E'en Sunday shines no Sabbath day to me.
lying angel pride
In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the bless'd abodes, Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
lust sacred way
To what base ends, and by what abject ways, Are mortals urg'd through sacred lust of praise!
vices dignity virtue
Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast; But shall the dignity of vice be lost?
smart heart men
The heart resolves this matter in a trice, "Men only feel the smart, but not the vice.
maids letters firsts
Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid.