Fuess and Stearns, comps. The Little Book of Society Verse. 1922.
By. Matthew PriorAnswer to Chloe Jealous
D
Thy cheek all on fire, and thy hair all uncurl’d:
Pr’ythee quit this caprice; and, as old Falstaff says,
Let us e’er talk a little like folks of this world.
The beauties which Venus but lent to thy keeping?
Those looks were design’d 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;
Ods 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 ’t is his fancy to run;
At night he declines on his Thetis’ breast.
To thee, my delight, in the evening I come:
No matter what beauties I saw in my way:
They were but 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.