On Certain Ladies

When other fair ones to the shades go down,
Still Chloe, Flavin, Delia, stay in town:
Those ghosts of beauty wandering here reside,
And haunt the places where their honour died.

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope was an English poet, best known for his satirical verse, including 'The Rape of the Lock' and 'The Dunciad'. He is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations after Shakespeare. Pope was one of the greatest English poets and the foremost poet of the early 18th century. He also translated Homer. Despite suffering from numerous health problems, Pope made a significant impact on English literature and is remembered for his sharp wit and mastery of the heroic couplet.

Alexander Pope

The Rape of the Lock (Canto 5)

Alexander Pope, Simple Poetry

On A Certain Lady At Court.

Alexander Pope, Simple Poetry

Prayer Of St. Francis Xavier

Alexander Pope, Simple Poetry

On The Countess Of Burlington Cutting Paper

Alexander Pope, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

Lines On A Grotto, At Crux-Easton, Hants.

Here shunning idleness at once and praise,
This radiant pile nine rural sisters^[130] raise;
The glittering emblem of each spotless dame,
Clear as her soul, and shining as her frame;
Beauty which nature only can impart,
And such a polish as disgraces art;
But Fate disposed them in this humble sort,
And hid in deserts what would charm a court.

Alexander Pope

Impromptu, To Lady Winchelsea

In vain you boast Poetic Names of yore,
And cite those Sapho's we admire no more:
Fate doom'd the Fall of ev'ry Female Wit,
But doom'd it then when first Ardelia writ.
Of all Examples by the World confest,
I knew Ardelia could not quote the best;
Who, like her Mistress on Britannia's Throne;
Fights, and subdues in Quarrels not her own.
To write their Praise you but in vain essay;
Ev'n while you write, you take that Praise away:
Light to the Stars the Sun does thus restore,
But shines himself till they are seen no more.

Alexander Pope

Elegy To The Memory Of An Unfortunate Lady

What beckning ghost, along the moon-light shade
Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?
Tis she!but why that bleeding bosom gord,
Why dimly gleams the visionary sword?
Oh ever beauteous, ever friendly! tell,
Is it, in heavn, a crime to love too well?
To bear too tender, or too firm a heart,
To act a lovers or a Romans part?
Is there no bright reversion in the sky,
For those who greatly think, or bravely die?

Why bade ye else, ye powrs! her soul aspire
Above the vulgar flight of low desire?
Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes;
The glorious fault of angels and of gods;
Thence to their images on earth it flows,
And in the breasts of kings and heroes glows.
Most souls, tis true, but peep out once an age,
Dull sullen prisners in ...

Alexander Pope

On A Certain Lady At Court

I know a thing thats most uncommon;
(Envy, be silent and attend!)
I know a reasonable woman,
Handsome and witty, yet a friend.

Not warpd by passion, awed by rumour;
Not grave through pride, nor gay through folly;
An equal mixture of good-humour
And sensible soft melancholy.

Has she no faults then (Envy says), Sir?
Yes, she has one, I must aver:
When all the world conspires to praise her,
The womans deaf, and does not hear.

Alexander Pope

On Seeing The Ladies Crux-Easton Walk In The Woods By The Grotto.

Authors the world and their dull brains have traced
To fix the ground where Paradise was placed;
Mind not their learned whims and idle talk;
Here, here's the place where these bright angels walk.

Alexander Pope

Inscription On A Grotto, The Work Of Nine Ladies.

Here, shunning idleness at once and praise,
This radiant pile nine rural sisters raise;
The glittering emblem of each spotless dame,
Clear as her soul and shining as her frame;
Beauty which nature only can impart,
And such a polish as disgraces art;
But Fate disposed them in this humble sort,
And hid in deserts what would charm a Court.

Alexander Pope