Poem by Matthew Prior

Phyllis's Age

How old may Phyllis be, you ask,
Whose beauty thus all hearts engages?
To answer is no easy task;
For she has really two ages.

Stiff in brocard, and pinch'd in stays,
Her patches, paint, and jewels on;
All day let envy view her face;
And Phyllis is but twenty-one.

Paint, patches, jewels laid aside,
At night astronomers agree,
The evening has the day belied;
And Phyllis is some forty-three.

1. An Ode - Presented to the King, on His Majesty's Arrival in Holland, after the Queen's Death
2. Partial Fame
3. An Extempore Invitation to the Earl of Oxford, Lord High Treasurer
4. A Lover's Anger
5. Love Disarmed

Print

1699 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version