Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake
Matthew Prior (16641721)A Better Answer
D
Thy cheek all on fire, and thy hair all uncurled:
Pr’ythee quit this caprice; and (as old Falstaff says)
Let us e’en talk a little like folks of this world.
The beauties, which Venus but lent to thy keeping?
Those looks were designed to inspire love and joy:
More ordinary eyes may serve people for weeping.
Your judgment at once, and my passion you wrong:
You take that for fact, which will scarce be found wit:
Od’s life! must one swear to the truth of a song?
The difference there is betwixt nature and art:
I court others in verse; but I love thee in prose:
And they have my whimsies; but thou hast my heart.
How after his journeys he sets up his rest:
If at morning o’er earth ’tis his fancy to run;
At night he reclines on his Thetis’s breast.
To thee, my delight, in the evening I come:
No matter what beauties I saw in my way:
They were but my visits, but thou art my home.
And let us like Horace and Lydia agree:
For thou art a girl as much brighter than her,
As he was a poet sublimer than me.