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
long acting serious
A long, exact, and serious comedy; In every scene some moral let it teach, And, if it can, at once both please and preach.
sky light sea
Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; My footstool earth, my canopy the skies.
wise cheat frailty
Unthought-of Frailties cheat us in the Wise.
done hell teach
What Conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do; This teach me more than Hell to shun, That more than Heav'n pursue.
wall writing rooms
Whether the darken'd room to muse invite, Or whiten'd wall provoke the skew'r to write; In durance, exile, Bedlam, or the Mint, Like Lee or Budgel I will rhyme and print.
father grief joy
Who ne'er knew joy but friendship might divide,Or gave his father grief but when he died.
war greek gold
Oh, when shall Britain, conscious of her claim, Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame? In living medals see her wars enroll'd, And vanquished realms supply recording gold?
men wife aids
For wit and judgment often are at strife, Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife.
art jewels grace
Poets like painters, thus unskilled to trace The naked nature and the living grace, With gold and jewels cover ev'ry part, And hide with ornaments their want of art. True wit is Nature to advantage dressed, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.
art soul slides
Still follow sense, of ev'ry art the soul, Parts answering parts shall slide into a whole.
smart littles fool
No creature smarts so little as a fool.
giving tree liberty
Give me again my hollow tree A crust of bread, and liberty!
self giving advice
Giving advice is many times only the privilege of saying a foolish thing one's self, under the pretense of hindering another from doing one.
art pain hate
Love, Hope, and Joy, fair pleasure's smiling train, Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of pain, These mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd Make and maintain the balance of the mind.