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Matthew Prior

1664 AD — 1721 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

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07Undated
Did sweeter sounds adorn my flowing tongue Than ever man pronounced, or angel sung; Had I all knowledge, human and divine, That thought can reach, or Science can define: And had I power to give that knowledge birth In all the speeches of the babbling earth; Did Shadrach’s zeal my glowing breast inspire, To weary tortures, and rejoice in fire: Or had I faith like that which Israel saw, When Moses gave them miracles and law; Yet gracious Charity, indulgent guest, Were not thy power exerted in my breast, Those speeches would send up unheeded prayer, That scorn of life would be but wild despair; A tymbal’s sound were better than my voice; My faith were form; my eloquence were noise. ***** Each other gift, which God on man bestows, Its proper bounds and due restriction knows, To one fixt purpose dedicates its power, And finishing its act, exists no more. Thus in obedience to what heaven decrees, Knowledge shall fail, and prophecy decrease, But lasting Charity’s more ample sway, Ne’er bound by time, nor subject to decay, In happy triumph shall for ever live, And endless good diffuse, and endless praise receive.
Matthew Prior / quote
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10Undated
As through the artist’s intervening glass Our eye observes the distant planets pass, A little we discover, but allow That more remains unseen than art can show: So whilst our mind its knowledge would improve, (Its feeble eye intent on things above,) High as we may we lift our reason up, By Faith directed, and confirmed by Hope: Yet we are able only to survey Dawnings of beams, and promises of day. Heaven’s fuller effluence mocks our dazzled sight; Too great its swiftness, and too strong its light: But soon the ’mediate clouds shall be dispelled; The sun shall then be face to face beheld, In all his robes, with all his glory on, Seated sublime on his meridian throne.
Matthew Prior / quote
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