Poetry - Alexander Pope

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Is there no bright reversion in the sky,

       For those who greatly think, or bravely die? 10

       Why bade ye else, ye Powers! 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 prisoners in the body's cage:

       Dim lights of life, that burn a length of years

       Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres; 20

       Like Eastern kings a lazy state they keep,

       And, close confined to their own palace, sleep.

       From these perhaps (ere Nature bade her die)

       Fate snatch'd her early to the pitying sky.

       As into air the purer spirits flow,

       And separate from their kindred dregs below;

       So flew the soul to its congenial place,

       Nor left one virtue to redeem her race.

       But thou, false guardian of a charge too good,

       Thou, mean deserter of thy brother's blood! 30

       See on these ruby lips the trembling breath,

       These cheeks, now fading at the blast of death;

       Cold is that breast which warm'd the world before,

       And those love-darting eyes must roll no more.

       Thus, if Eternal Justice rules the ball,

       Thus shall your wives, and thus your children fall:

       On all the line a sudden vengeance waits,

       And frequent hearses shall besiege your gates.

       There passengers shall stand, and pointing say,

       (While the long funerals blacken all the way) 40

       'Lo, these were they, whose souls the Furies steel'd,

       And cursed with hearts unknowing how to yield.'

       Thus unlamented pass the proud away,

       The gaze of fools, and pageant of a day!

       So perish all, whose breast ne'er learn'd to glow

       For others' good, or melt at others' woe.

       What can atone (O ever-injured Shade!)

       Thy fate unpitied, and thy rites unpaid?

       No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear

       Pleased thy pale ghost, or graced thy mournful bier, 50

       By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,

       By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed,

       By foreign hands thy humble grave adorn'd,

       By strangers honour'd, and by strangers mourn'd!

       What, though no friends in sable weeds appear,

       Grieve for an hour, perhaps, then mourn a year,

       And bear about the mockery of woe

       To midnight dances, and the public show?

       What, though no weeping loves thy ashes grace,

       Nor polish'd marble emulate thy face? 60

       What, though no sacred earth allow thee room,

       Nor hallow'd dirge be mutter'd o'er thy tomb?

       Yet shall thy grave with rising flowers be dress'd,

       And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast:

       There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow,

       There the first roses of the year shall blow;

       While angels with their silver wings o'ershade

       The ground, now sacred by thy relics made.

       So peaceful rests, without a stone, a name,

       What once had beauty, titles, wealth, and fame. 70

       How loved, how honour'd 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!

       Poets themselves must fall, like those they sung,

       Deaf the praised ear, and mute the tuneful tongue.

       Even he, whose soul now melts in mournful lays,

       Shall shortly want the generous tear he pays;

       Then from his closing eyes thy form shall part,

       And the last pang shall tear thee from his heart; 80

       Life's idle business at one gasp be o'er,

       The Muse forgot, and thou beloved no more!

       Table of Contents

      To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,

       To raise the genius, and to mend the heart;

       To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold,

       Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold:

       For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage,

       Commanding tears to stream through every age;

       Tyrants no more their savage nature kept,

       And foes to virtue wonder'd how they wept.

       Our author shuns by vulgar springs to move

       The hero's glory, or the virgin's love; 10

       In pitying love, we but our weakness show,

       And wild ambition well deserves its woe.

       Here tears shall flow from a more generous cause,

       Such tears as patriots shed for dying laws:

       He bids your breasts with ancient ardour rise,

       And calls forth Roman drops from British eyes.

       Virtue confess'd in human shape he draws,

       What Plato thought, and godlike Cato was:

       No common object to your sight displays,

       But what with pleasure59 Heaven itself surveys, 20 A brave man struggling in the storms of fate, And greatly falling with a falling state. While Cato gives his little senate laws, What bosom beats not in his country's cause? Who sees him act, but envies every deed? Who hears him groan, and does not wish to bleed? Even when proud Caesar, 'midst triumphal cars, The spoils of nations, and the pomp of wars, Ignobly vain and impotently great, Show'd Rome her Cato's figure drawn in state; 30 As her dead father's reverend image pass'd, The pomp was darken'd and the day o'ercast; The triumph ceased, tears gush'd from every eye; The world's great victor pass'd unheeded by; Her last good man dejected Rome adored, And honour'd Caesar's less than Cato's sword. Britons, attend: be worth like this approved, And show you have the virtue to be moved. With honest scorn the first famed Cato view'd Rome learning arts from Greece, whom she subdued; 40 Your scene precariously subsists too long On French translation, and Italian song. Dare to have sense yourselves; assert the stage, Be justly warm'd with your own native rage; Such plays alone should win a British ear, As Cato's self had not disdain'd to hear.

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