Matthew Prior on Valentine's Day
1664–1721 England
← All quotes by Matthew Prior
5 quotes
In argument
Similes are like songs in love:
They must describe; they nothing prove.
For, when with beauty we can virtue join,
We paint the semblance of a form divine.
Verses to the Lady Henrietta-Cavendish Holles Harley (1709)
And oft the pangs of absence to remove
By letters, soft interpreters of love.
No, traytress, angry Love replies,
She’s hid somewhere about thy breast,
A place nor God nor man denies,
For Venus’ dove the proper nest.
No longer shall the bodice aptly lac'd
From thy full bosom to thy slender waist,
That air and harmony of shape express,
Fine by degrees, and beautifully less.