TO THE AUTHOR OF THE Foregoing PASTORAL. Matthew Prior Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T075639 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°.

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