Poetry Screen Saver - Quotes

Alexander Pope ( 1688-1744 )

Vital spark of heav'nly flame!
Quit, oh quit this mortal frame:
Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying,
Oh the pain, the bliss of dying!
How happy in the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot!
Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.
A little learning is a dang'rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Some praise at morning what they blame at night;
But always think the last option right.
All nature is but art unknown to thee,
All chance, direction which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good.
But as the slightest sketch, if justly traced,
Is by ill colouring but the more disgraced,
So by false learning is good sense defaced
Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.