Poems by Matthew Prior

All Poems Original Poems Translations

« ‹ 1 2 3 4 5 › »

A Better Answer

Dear Cloe, how blubber'd is that pretty Face?

Thy Cheek all on Fire, and Thy Hair all uncurl'd:

Pr'ythee quit this Caprice; and (as old Falstaf says)

Let Us e'en talk a little like Folks of This World.

How can'st Thou presume, Thou hast leave to destroy

The Beauties, which Venus but lent to Thy keeping?

Those Looks were design'd to inspire Love and Joy:

More ord'nary Eyes may serve People for weeping.

by Matthew Prior

Phyllis's Age

How old may Phyllis be, you ask,

Whose beauty thus all hearts engages?

To answer is no easy task;

For she has really two ages.

Stiff in brocard, and pinch'd in stays,

Her patches, paint, and jewels on;

All day let envy view her face;

And Phyllis is but twenty-one.

by Matthew Prior

A True Maid

No, no; for my virginity,

When I lose that, says Rose, I'll die:

Behind the elms last night, cried Dick,

Rose, were you not extremely sick?

by Matthew Prior

An Epitaph

Stet quicunque volet potensAulae culmine lubrico, &c.

~ Seneca.

Interr'd beneath this marble stone,

Lie saunt'ring Jack and idle Joan.

While rolling threescore years and one

Did round this globe their courses run;

If human things went ill or well;

If changing empires rose or fell;

by Matthew Prior

Horace, Lib I, Epist IX, Imitated To The Right Honourable Mr Harley

Dear Dick, how e'er it comes into his head,

Believes, as firmly as he does his creed,

That you and I, sir, are extremely great;

Though I plain Mat, you minister of state.

One word from me, without all doubt, he says,

Would fix his fortune in some little place.

Thus better than myself, it seems, he knows

How far my interest with my patron goes;

by Matthew Prior

An Ode - Humbly Inscribed To The Queen, On the Glorious Success of Her Majesty's Arms

When great Augustus govern'd ancient Rome,

And sent his conquering bands to foreign wars,

Abroad when dreaded, and beloved at home,

He saw his fame increasing with his years,

Horace, great bard, (so fate ordain'd) arose,

And, bold as were his countryman in fight,

Snatch'd their fair actions from degrading prose,

And set their battles in eternal light:

by Matthew Prior

Seeing The Duke Of Ormond's Picture, At Sir Godfrey Kneller's

Out from the injured canvas, Kneller, strike

These lines too faint; the picture is not like.

Exalt thy thought, and try thy toil again:

Dreadful in arms, on Landen's glorious plain

Place Ormond's Duke: impendent in the air

Let his keen sabre, comet-like, appear,

Where'er it points denouncing death: below

Draw routed squadrons, and the numerous foe

by Matthew Prior

The Turtle And Sparrow An Elegiac Tale

Behind an unfrequented glade,

Where yew and myrtle mix their shade,

A widow Turtle pensive sat,

And wept her murder'd lover's fate.

The Sparrow chanced that way to walk,

(A bird that loves to chirp and talk)

Be sure he did the Turtle greet,

She answer'd him as she thought meet.

by Matthew Prior

Charity : A Paraphrase On 1 Cor Chap 13

Did sweeter Sounds adorn my flowing Tongue,

Than ever Man pronounc'd, or Angel sung:

Had I all Knowledge, Human and Divine,

That Thought can reach, or Science can define;

And had I Pow'r to give that Knowledge Birth,

In all the Speeches of the babbling Earth:

Did Shadrach's Zeal my glowing Breast inspire,

To weary Tortures, and rejoice in Fire:

by Matthew Prior

A Simile

Dear Thomas, didst thou never pop

Thy head into a tin-man's shop?

There, Thomas, didst thou never see

('Tis but by way of simile)

A squirrel spend his little rage

In jumping round a rolling cage?

The cage, as either side turn'd up,

Striking a ring of bells a-top?—

by Matthew Prior

Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind In Three Cantos - Canto I

Matthew met Richard, when or where

From story is not mighty clear:

Of many knotty points they spoke,

And

pro

and

con

by turns they took:

by Matthew Prior

Solomon on the Vanity of the World, A Poem In Three Books - Pleasure Book II

The Argument

Solomon, again seeking happiness, inquires if wealth and greatness can produce it: begins with the magnificence of gardens and buildings; the luxury of music and feasting; and proceeds to the hopes and desires of love. In two episodes are shown the follies and troubles of that passion. Solomon, still disappointed, falls under the temptations of libertinism and idolatry; recovers his thought; reasons aright; and concludes that, as to the pursuit of pleasure and sensual delight, All Is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit.

Try then, O man, the moments to deceive

That from the womb attend thee to the grave:

For wearied Nature find some apter scheme;

Health be thy hope, and pleasure be thy theme;

From the perplexing and unequal ways

Where Study brings thee from the endless maze

by Matthew Prior