StoryTitle("caps", "To a Child of Quality") ?>
Five Years Old, 1704 — The Author Then Forty
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Lords, knights, and squires, the numerous band ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That wear the fair Miss Mary's fetters, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Were summoned by her high command ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To show their passions by their letters. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "My pen amongst the rest I took,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Lest those bright eyes, that cannot read, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Should dart their kindling fire, and look ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The power they have to be obey'd. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nor quality, nor reputation, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Forbid me yet my flame to tell;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Dear Five-years-old befriends my passion, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And I may write till she can spell. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For, while she makes her silkworms beds ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With all the tender things I swear; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Whilst all the house my passion reads, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "In papers round her baby's hair; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She may receive and own my flame; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For, though the strictest prudes should know it, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She'll pass for a most virtuous dame, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And I for an unhappy poet.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then too, alas! when she shall tear ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The rhymes some younger rival sends, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She'll give me leave to write, I fear, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And we shall still continue friends. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For, as our different ages move,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2SQ", "", "'Tis so ordain'd (would Fate but mend it!), ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That I shall be past making love ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "When she begins to comprehend it.", "") ?>
Poet("Matthew Prior", "1664–1721") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>