By Sylvia if thy charming self be meant; <br />If friendship be thy virgin vows' extent, <br />O! let me in Aminta's praises join, <br />Hers my esteem shall be, my passion thine. <br />When for thy head the garland I prepare, <br />A second wreath shall bind Aminta's hair; <br />And when my choicest songs thy worth proclaim, <br />Alternate verse shall bless Aminta's name; <br />My heart shall own the justice of her cause, <br />And Love himself submit to Friendship's laws. <br />But if beneath thy numbers' soft disguise <br />Some favour'd swain, some true Alexis, lies; <br />If Amaryllis breathes thy secret pains, <br />And thy fond heart beats measure to thy strains, <br />May'st thou, howe'er I grieve, for ever find <br />The flame propitious and the lover kind; <br />May Venus long exert her happy power, <br />And make thy beauty like thy verse endure: <br />May every god his friendly aid afford, <br />Pan guard thy flock, and Ceres bless thy board. <br />But if, by chance, the series of thy joys <br />Permit one thought less cheerful to arise, <br />Piteous transfer it to the mournful swain, <br />Who loving much, who not beloved again, <br />Feels an ill-fated passion's last excess, <br />And dies in wo that thou may'st live in peace.<br /><br />Matthew Prior<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-the-author-of-the-foregoing-pastoral-love-and-friendship/
