Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PHILLIS'S AGE by MATTHEW PRIOR

First Line: HOW OLD MAY PHILLIS BE, YOU ASK
Last Line: AND PHYLLIS IS SOME FORTY-THREE.
Subject(s): LOVE; MIDDLE AGE;
How old may Phyllis be, you ask,
Whose beauty thus all hearts engages?
To answer is no easy task,
For she has really two ages.
Stiff in brocard, and pinch'd in stays,
His patches, paint, and jewels on,
All day let envy view her face;
And Phyllis is but twenty-one.
Paint, patches, jewels laid aside,
As night astronomers agree,
The evening has the day belied;
And Phyllis is some forty-three.





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