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. Love Disarmed
4. An Extempore Invitation to the Earl of Oxford, Lord High Treasurer
5. A Lover's Anger

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