Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Oliver Goldsmith

O memory, thou fond deceiver,
  Still importunate and vain,
To former joys recurring ever,
  And turning all the past to pain:

Thou, like the world, th’ oppress’d oppressing,
  Thy smiles increase the wretch’s woe:
And he who wants each other blessing
  In thee must ever find a foe.

Online text © 1998-2009 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250-1900 | Clarendon, 1919

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Tags, sometimes called “folksonomies,” are words that describe or categorize a poem, like “20th century modernism” or “Italian sonnet”. Tags can help you find poems that have something in common, based on how other people classify them.

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