[Page 34]

TO THE AUTHOR OF THE Foregoing PASTORAL.

1 By Silvia if thy charming Self be meant;
2 If Friendship be thy Virgin Vows Extent;
3 O! let me in Aminta's Praises join:
4 Her's my Esteem shall be, my Passion Thine.
5 When for Thy Head the Garland I prepare;
6 A second Wreath shall bind Aminta's Hair:
7 And when my choicest Songs Thy Worth proclaim;
8 Alternate Verse shall bless Aminta's Name:
9 My Heart shall own the Justice of Her Cause;
10 And Love himself submit to Friendship's Laws.
11 But if beneath thy Numbers soft Disguise,
12 Some favor'd Swain, some true Alexis lyes;
13 If Amaryllis breaths thy secret Pains;
14 And thy fond Heart beats Measure to thy Strains:
15 May'st thou, howe'er I grieve, for ever find
16 The Flame propitious, and the Lover kind:
17 May Venus long exert her happy Pow'r,
18 And make thy Beauty, like thy Verse, endure:
19 May ev'ry God his friendly Aid afford;
20 Pan guard thy Flock, and Ceres bless thy Board.
[Page 35]
21 But if by chance the Series of thy Joys
22 Permit one Thought less chearful to arise;
23 Piteous transfer it to the mournful Swain,
24 Who loving much, who not belov'd again,
25 Feels an ill-fated Passion's last Excess;
26 And dies in Woe, that Thou may'st live in Peace.

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Title (in Source Edition): TO THE AUTHOR OF THE Foregoing PASTORAL.
Author: Matthew Prior
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Genres: pastoral

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Prior, Matthew, 1664-1721. Poems on Several Occasions [English poems only]. London: Printed for JACOB TONSON at Shakespear's-Head over against Katharine-Street in the Strand, and JOHN BARBER upon Lambeth-Hill. MDCCXVIII., 1718, pp. 34-35. [42],506,[6]p.: ill.; 2°. (ESTC T075639) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [H 6.8 Art.].)

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