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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON A PRETTY MADWOMAN, by MATTHEW PRIOR Poet's Biography
First Line: While mad ophelia we lament
Last Line: Or a dead-ebb of grief.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness
First Line: While mad ophelia we lament
Last Line: Or a dead-ebb of grief.
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness
While mad Ophelia we lament,
And Her distraction mourn,
Our grief's misplac'd, Our tears misspent,
Since what for Her condition's meant,
More justly fits Our Own.
For if 'tis happiness to be,
From all the turns of Fate,
From dubious Joy, and sorrow free;
Ophelia then is blest, and we
Misunderstand Her state.
The Fates may do whate'er they will,
They can't disturb her mind,
Insensible of good or ill,
Ophelia is Ophelia still
Be Fortune cross or kind.
Then make with reason no more noise,
Since what should give relief,
The quiet of Our mind destroys,
Or with a full spring-tide of joys,
Or a dead-ebb of grief.
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