Quote#Poetry
Vain was the chief's, the sage's pride!
Quote byAlexander Pope · 1688–1744
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Odes, Book iv, Ode 9, reported in William Warburton, The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq (1751) p. 31.
English (original)
Vain was the chief's, the sage's pride! They had no poet, and they died. In vain they schem'd, in vain they bled! They had no poet, and are dead.
— Alexander Pope
More from Alexander Pope
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.
Happy the man whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air In his own ground.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown; Thus unlamented let me die; Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie.
'Tis fixed, the irrevocable doom of Jove; No force can bend me, no persuasion move.
Well, if our author in the wife offends He has a husband that will make amends; He draws him gentle, tender, and forgiving, And sure such kind good creatures may be living.
They dream in Courtship, but in Wedlock wake.