Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, APOLOGY TO A LADY, by MATTHEW PRIOR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

APOLOGY TO A LADY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Fair sylvia, cease to blame my youth
Last Line: And never settle more!
Subject(s): Beauty; Forgiveness; Love; Women; Youth; Clemency


FAIR Sylvia, cease to blame my youth
For having loved before;
So men, ere they have learned the truth,
Strange deities adore.

My youth ('tis true) has often ranged,
Like bees o'er gaudy flowers;
And many thousand loves has changed,
Till it was fixed in yours.

For, Sylvia, when I saw those eyes,
'Twas soon determined there;
Stars might as well forsake the skies,
And vanish into air!

If I from this great rule do err,
New beauties to explore;
May I again turn wanderer,
And never settle more!





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