[Page 70]

TO Mr. HOWARD: An ODE.

I.
1 Dear Howard, from the soft assaults of Love,
2 Poets and Painters never are Secure:
3 Can I untouch'd the Fair ones Passions move?
4 Or Thou draw Beauty, and not feel it's Pow'r?
II.
5 To Great Apelles when Young Ammon brought
6 The darling Idol of his Captive Heart;
7 And the pleas'd Nymph with kind Attention sat,
8 To have Her Charms recorded by His Art:
[Page 71]
III.
9 The am'rous Master own'd Her potent Eyes;
10 Sigh'd when He look'd, and trembl'd as He drew:
11 Each flowing Line confirm'd his first Surprize;
12 And as the Piece advanc'd, the Passion grew.
IV.
13 While Philip's Son, while Venus' Son was near,
14 What different Tortures does his Bosom feel?
15 Great was the Rival, and the God severe:
16 Nor could He hide his Flame, nor durst reveal.
V.
17 The Prince, renown'd in Bounty as in Arms,
18 With Pity saw the ill-conceal'd Distress;
19 Quitted His Title to Campaspe's Charms,
20 And gave the Fair one to the Friend's Embrace.
VI.
21 Thus the more beauteous Cloe sat to Thee,
22 Good Howard, emu'lous of the Græcian Art:
23 But happy Thou, from Cupid's Arrow free,
24 And Flames that pierc'd Thy Predecessor's Heart.
VII.
25 Had Thy poor Breast receiv'd an equal Pain;
26 Had I been vested with the Monarch's Pow'r;
27 Thou must have sigh'd, unlucky Youth, in vain;
28 Nor from My Bounty hadst Thou found a Cure.
VIII.
29 Tho' to convince Thee, that the Friend did feel
30 A kind Concern for Thy ill-fated Care,
31 I would have sooth'd the Flame, I could not heal;
32 Giv'n Thee the World; tho' I with-held the Fair.

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Title (in Source Edition): TO Mr. HOWARD: An ODE.
Author: Matthew Prior
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Genres: address; ode

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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. 70-71. [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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