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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ANSWER TO CLOE JEALOUS by MATTHEW PRIOR

First Line: YES, FAIREST PROOF OF BEAUTY'S POWER
Last Line: WHO, DYING THUS, PERSISTS TO LOVE THEE.
Subject(s): BEAUTY; JEALOUSY; NATURE; TEARS; YOUTH;

YES, fairest proof of Beauty's power,
Dear idol of my panting heart,
Nature points this my fatal hour:
And I have lived, -- and we must part.

While now I take my last adieu,
Heave thou no sigh, nor shed a tear;
Lest yet my half-closed eye may view
On earth an object worth its care.

From Jealousy's tormenting strife
For ever be thy bosom freed;
That nothing may disturb thy life,
Content I hasten to the dead.

Yet when some better-fated youth
Shall with his amorous parley move thee:
Reflect one moment on @3his@1 truth
Who, dying thus, persists to love thee.



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