A Better Answer. 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. 96-97. [42],506,[6]p.: ill.; 2°.

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A Better Answer . I. Dear Cloe , how blubber'd is that pretty Face ? Thy Cheek all on Fire , and Thy Hair all uncurl'd : Pr'ythee quit this Caprice ; and ( as old Falstaf says ) Let Us e'en talk a little like Folks of This World . II . How can'st Thou presume , Thou hast leave to destroy The Beauties , which Venus but lent to Thy keeping ? Those Looks were design'd to inspire Love and Joy : More ord'nary Eyes may serve People for weeping . III . To be vext at a Trifle or two that I writ , Your Judgment at once , and my Passion You wrong : You take that for Fact , which will scarce be found Wit : Od's Life ! must One swear to the Truth of a Song ? IV . What I speak , my fair Cloe , and what I write , shews The Diff'rence 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 . V. The God of us Verse-men ( You know Child ) the Sun , How after his Journeys He sets up his Rest : If at Morning o'er Earth 'tis his Fancy to run ; At Night he reclines on his Thetis's Breast . VI . So when I am weary'd with wand'ring all Day ; To Thee my Delight in the Evening I come : No Matter what Beauties I saw in my Way : They were but my Visits ; but Thou art my Home . VII . Then finish , Dear Cloe , this Pastoral War ; 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 .