Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Matthew Prior. 16641721423. To a Child of Quality, Five Years Old, 1704. The Author then Forty
LORDS, knights, and squires, the numerous band | |
That wear the fair Miss Mary’s fetters, | |
Were summoned by her high command | |
To show their passions by their letters. | |
My pen amongst the rest I took, | 5 |
Lest those bright eyes, that cannot read, | |
Should dart their kindling fire, and look | |
The power they have to be obey’d. | |
Nor quality, nor reputation, | |
Forbid me yet my flame to tell; | 10 |
Dear Five-years-old befriends my passion, | |
And I may write till she can spell. | |
For, while she makes her silkworms beds | |
With all the tender things I swear; | |
Whilst all the house my passion reads, | 15 |
In papers round her baby’s hair; | |
She may receive and own my flame; | |
For, though the strictest prudes should know it, | |
She’ll pass for a most virtuous dame, | |
And I for an unhappy poet. | 20 |
Then too, alas! when she shall tear | |
The rhymes some younger rival sends, | |
She’ll give me leave to write, I fear, | |
And we shall still continue friends. | |
For, as our different ages move, | 25 |
‘Tis so ordain’d (would Fate but mend it!), | |
That I shall be past making love | |
When she begins to comprehend it. |