Alexander Pope Couplets

2025-02-19   poem

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Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night;

God said "Let Newton be" and all was light.

-Epitaph XII., In Westminster Abbey

Be not the first by whom the new are tried,

Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

-An Essay on Criticism, lines 335–336

A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

-An Essay on Criticism, lines 215–216

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,

As those move easiest who have learned to dance.

-An Essay on Criticism, lines 362–363

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References:

• First couplet is known as "Epitaph XII. Intended For Sir Isaac Newton, In Westminster Abbey" (1730). I heard about it first from Celal Sengor in one of his interviews.
  

• lumenmiller.weebly.com/heroic-couplets.html
  

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