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POEMS OF PRIOR.

[Matthew PriOR, English poet and diplomatist, was born at WimborneMinster, Dorsetshire, England, July 21, 1664; died at Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, September 18, 1721. He was graduated at St. John's College in 1686; became intimate with Charles Montagu, and with him wrote "The Hind and the Panther, transvers'd to the Story of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse " (1687), a parody on Dryden, who was deeply annoyed. Prior was secretary to Lord Dursley, ambassador to the Hague, 1690-1697; secretary to the Earl of Portland's embassy to France in 1698. He was afterward a member of Parlia ment and an ambassador to Paris, and in 1715 was impeached and imprisoned two years in his own house. His poems are not great, but are graceful, polished, and witty. A collection entitled "Carmen Seculare" was published in 1700, and "Alma, or the Progress of the Mind" in 1715.]

THE LADY'S LOOKING-GLASS.

CELIA and I the other day

Walked o'er the sand hills to the sea:

The setting sun adorned the coast,
His beams entire, his fierceness lost:
And on the surface of the deep,
The winds lay only not asleep:
The nymph did like the scene appear,
Serenely pleasant, calmly fair:
Soft fell her words, as flew the air.
With secret joy I heard her say
That she would never miss one day

A walk so fine, a sight so gay.

But, oh the change! the winds grow high;
Impending tempests charge the sky;
The lightning flies; the thunder roars;
And big waves lash the frightened shores.
Struck with the horror of the sight,

She turns her head, and wings her flight;

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