Two poems by the bright light of the Augustan Age of English poetry

The Quiet Life

• Happy the man whose wish and care
• A few paternal acres bound
• Content to breathe his native air
• In his own ground.

• Whose herd with milk, whose fields with bread,
• Whose flocks supply him with attire;
• Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
• In winter, fire.

• Blest, who can unconcern’dly find
• Hours, days, and years, slide soft away
• In health of body; peace of mind;
• Quiet by day;

• Sound sleep by night; study and ease
• Together mix’d; sweet recreation,
• And innocence, which most does please
• With meditation.

• Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
• Thus unlamented let me die;
• Steal from the world, and not a stone
• Tell where I lie.

Belinda (from The Rape of the Lock)

• On her white Breast a sparkling Cross she wore,
• Which Jews might kiss, and Infidels adore.
• Her lively Looks a sprightly Mind disclose,
• Quick as her Eyes, and as unfix’d as those:
• Favours to none, to all she Smiles extends,
• Oft she rejects, but never once offends.
• Bright as the Sun, her Eyes the Gazers strike,
• And, like the Sun, they shine on all alike.
• Yet graceful Ease, and Sweetness void of Pride,
• Might hide her Faults, if Belles had Faults to hide:
• If to her share some Female Errors fall,
• Look on her Face, and you’ll forget ’em all.

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) was an 18th-century English poet and bright light of the Augustan Age of English poetry, best known for his satirical verse and his translation of Homer into heroic couplets.