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Matthew Prior. Poems on Several Occasions

The Text Edited by A. R. Waller
Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)

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POEMS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS.
  
[dedication]
  
On Exodus iii. 14. I am that I am.
  
TO THE COUNTESS of EXETER, Playing on the Lute.
  
Picture of Seneca dying in a Bath.
  
An ODE.
  
AN EPISTLE TO FLEETWOOD SHEPHARD, Esq
  
TO THE COUNTESS of DORSET.
  
TO THE LADY DURSLEY
  
TO My LORD BUCKHURST, Very Young, Playing with a CAT.
  
An ODE.
  
A SONG.
  
THE DESPAIRING SHEPHERD.
  
To the Honorable CHARLES MONTAGUE, Esq
  
HYMN to the SUN.
  
THE LADY's LOOKING-GLASS.
  
LOVE and FRIENDSHIP: A PASTORAL.
  
TO THE AUTHOR OF THE Foregoing PASTORAL.
  
To a LADY:
  
SEEING THE DUKE of ORMOND's PICTURE, AT Sir GODFREY KNELLER's.
  
CELIA TO DAMON.
  
An ODE.
  
IN IMITATION OF ANACREON.
  
An ODE.
  
An English BALLAD, On the Taking of NAMUR By the King of Great Britain, 1695.
  
Presented to the KING, AT HIS ARRIVAL in HOLLAND, AFTER THE Discovery of the Conspiracy 1696.
  
To CLOE Weeping.
  
TO Mr. HOWARD:
  
LOVE Disarm'd.
  
CLOE HUNTING.
  
CUPID and GANYMEDE.
  
CUPID Mistaken.
  
VENUS Mistaken.
  
A SONG.
  
The DOVE.
  
A LOVER's ANGER.
  
MERCURY and CUPID.
  
On BEAUTY.
  
The Question, to Lisetta.
  
Lisetta's Reply.
  
The Garland.
  
The Lady who offers her Looking-Glass to Venus.
  
CLOE JEALOUS.
  
Answer to CLOE Jealous, in the same Stile. The AUTHOR sick.
  
A Better Answer.
  
PALLAS and VENUS.
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TO A Young Gentleman in Love.
  
[section]
  
MORAL.
  
AN ENGLISH PADLOCK.
  
HANS CARVEL.
  
A Dutch Proverb.
  
PAULO PURGANTI AND His WIFE:
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THE LADLE.
  
[section]
  
MORAL.
  
Written at Paris, 1700. In the Beginning of ROBE's GEOGRAPHY.
  
Written in the Beginning of MEZERAY's History of FRANCE.
  
Written in the Nouveaux Interests des Princes de l'Europe.
  
A Passage in the MORIÆ ENCOMIUM of Erasmus Imitated.
  
TO Dr. SHERLOCK, ON HIS PRACTICAL DISCOURSE Concerning Death.
  
CARMEN SECULARE, For the Year 1700.
  
An ODE.
  
PROLOGUE, SPOKEN AT COURT before the QUEEN, On Her Majesty's Birth-Day, 1704.
  
A LETTER TO Monsieur Boileau Despreaux; Occasion'd by the VICTORY at BLENHEIM, 1704.
  
FOR The Plan of a Fountain,
  
THE CHAMELEON.
  
MERRY ANDREW.
  
A SIMILE.
  
The FLIES.
  
From the Greek.
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[subsection]
  
EPIGRAM.
  
ANOTHER.
  
ANOTHER.
  
ANOTHER.
  
To a Person who wrote Ill, and spake Worse against Me.
  
On the Same Person.
  
Quid sit futurum Cras fuge quærere.
  
HENRY and EMMA, A POEM, Upon the Model of The Nut-brown Maid.
  
AN ODE, Humbly Inscrib'd to the QUEEN. ON THE Glorious Success OF Her MAJESTY's Arms, 1706.
  
CANTATA.
  
Her Right Name.
  
Written in an OVID.
  
A TRUE MAID.
  
ANOTHER.
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[subsection]
  
A Reasonable Affliction.
  
Another Reasonable Affliction.
  
ANOTHER.
  
On the same Subject.
  
On the Same.
  
PHYLLIS's AGE.
  
Forma Bonum Fragile.
  
A Critical Moment.
  
An EPIGRAM.
  
EPILOGUE TO PHÆDRA.
  
EPILOGUE TO LUCIUS.
  
The THIEF AND THE CORDELIER,
  
An EPITAPH.
  
Horace Lib. I. Epist. IX. Septimius, Claudi, nimirum intelligit unus, Quanti me facias: &c.
  
To Mr. HARLEY.
  
An Extempore Invitation TO THE EARL of OXFORD, Lord High Treasurer. 1712.
  
Erle ROBERT's MICE.
  
In the same Style.
  
In the same Style.
  
A FLOWER, Painted by SIMON VARELST.
  
TO THE Lady Elizabeth Harley, Since Marchioness of Carmarthen, On a Column of Her Drawing.
  
Protogenes and Apelles.
  
Democritus and Heraclitus.
  
For my own Tomb-stone.
  
GUALTERUS DANISTONUS. Ad Amicos.
  
THE FIRST HYMN OF CALLIMACHUS.
  
THE SECOND HYMN OF CALLIMACHUS.
  
CHARITY.
  
Engraven on a COLUMN In the Church of Halstead in Essex,
  
Written in Montaigne's Essays,
  
An EPISTLE, Desiring the Queen's Picture.
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ALMA: OR, THE PROGRESS OF THE MIND.
 1. 
THE FIRST CANTO.
 2. 
THE SECOND CANTO.
 3. 
THE THIRD CANTO.
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SOLOMON ON THE VANITY OF THE WORLD.
 1. 
KNOWLEDGE; THE FIRST BOOK.
 2. 
PLEASURE: THE SECOND BOOK.
 3. 
POWER; THE THIRD BOOK.

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The FLIES.

Say, Sire of Insects, mighty Sol
(A Fly upon the Chariot-Pole
Cries out) what Blew-Bottle alive
Did ever with such Fury drive?
Tell, Belzebub, Great Father, tell
(Says t'other, perch'd upon the Wheel)
Did ever any Mortal Fly
Raise such a Cloud of Dust, as I?
My Judgment turn'd the whole Debate:
My Valor sav'd the sinking State.
So talk two idle buzzing Things;
Toss up their Heads, and stretch their Wings.
But let the Truth to Light be brought:
This neither spoke, nor t'other fought:
No Merit in their own Behav'or:
Both rais'd, but by their Party's Favor.
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