Phyllis's Age

Matthew Prior

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,
  Her patches, paint, and jewels on;
All day let envy view her face;
  And Phyllis is but twenty-one.

Paint, patches, jewels laid aside,
  At night astronomers agree,
The evening has the day belied;
  And Phyllis is some forty-three.

Index + Blog :

Poetry Archive Index | Blog : Poem of the Day