[Page 267]

Her Right Name.

1 As Nancy at Her Toylet sat,
2 Admiring This, and blaming That;
3 Tell Me, She said; but tell Me true;
4 The Nymph who cou'd your Heart subdue,
5 What Sort of Charms does She possess?
6 Absolve Me Fair One: I'll confess;
7 With Pleasure I reply'd. Her Hair,
8 In Ringlets rather dark than fair,
[Page 268]
9 Does down her Iv'ry Bosom roll,
10 And hiding Half, adorns the Whole.
11 In her high Forehead's fair half-round
12 Love sits in open Triumph crown'd:
13 He in the Dimple of her Chin,
14 In private State by Friends is seen.
15 Her Eyes are neither black, nor grey;
16 Nor fierce, nor feeble is their Ray:
17 Their dubious Lustre seems to show
18 Something that speaks nor Yes, nor No.
19 Her Lips no living Bard, I weet,
20 May say, how Red, how Round, how Sweet:
21 Old Homer only cou'd indite
22 Their vagrant Grace, and soft Delight:
23 They stand Recorded in his Book,
24 When Helen smil'd, and Hebe spoke
25 The Gipsy turning to her Glass,
26 Too plainly show'd, She knew the Face:
27 And which am I most like, She said,
28 Your Cloe, or Your Nut-brown Maid?

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Title (in Source Edition): Her Right Name.
Author: Matthew Prior
Themes:
Genres: epigram

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Prior, Matthew, 1664-1721. Poems on Several Occasions [English poems only]. London: Printed for JACOB TONSON at Shakespear's-Head over against Katharine-Street in the Strand, and JOHN BARBER upon Lambeth-Hill. MDCCXVIII., 1718, pp. 267-268. [42],506,[6]p.: ill.; 2°. (ESTC T075639) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [H 6.8 Art.].)

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Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

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