Matthew Prior (July 21, 1664 – September 18, 1721) was an English poet and diplomat.
Sourced
- Our hopes, like towering falcons, aim
At objects in an airy height;
The little pleasure of the game
Is from afar to view the flight.
- To the Honorable Charles Montague (1692)
- The end must justify the means.
- Hans Carvel (1700)
- Lays the rough paths of peevish Nature even,
And opens in each heart a little heaven.
- Charity (1703)
- Be to her virtues very kind;
Be to her faults a little blind;
Let all her ways be unconfined;
And clap your padlock — on her mind!
- An English Padlock (1707)
- And thought the nation ne'er would thrive
Till all the whores were burnt alive.
- Paulo Purganti and His Wife (1708)
- He ranged his tropes, and preached up patience;
Backed his opinion with quotations.
- Paulo Purganti and His Wife (1708)
- Cured yesterday of my disease,
I died last night of my physician.
- The Remedy Worse than the Disease (1714)
- And often took leave, but was loth to depart.
- The Thief and the Cordelier (1718)
- His noble negligences teach
What others' toils despair to reach.
- Alma, Canto II, l. 7 (1718)
- Till their own dreams at length decive 'em,
And oft repeating, they believe 'em.
- Alma, Canto III, l. 13 (1718)
- To John I owed great obligation;
But John, unhappily, thought fit
To publish it to all the nation:
Sure John and I are more than quit.
- Epigram (1718)
- Venus, take my votive glass;
Since I am not what I was,
What from this day I shall be,
Venus, let me never see.
- The Lady Who Offers Her Looking-Glass to Venus (1718)
- Nobles and heralds, by your leave,
Here lies what once was Matthew Prior;
The son of Adam and of Eve:
Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher?
- Epitaph (1721)
External links
Wikipedia has an article about: Matthew Prior- The Matthew Prior Project, Prior's complete correspondence
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