Matthew Prior

Abroad

The fox roams far abroad.

Accent

The tender accent of a woman's cry.

Achieve

Show all the spoils by valiant kings achieved.

Adown

Her hair adown her shoulders loosely lay displayed.

Afflictive

Spreads slow disease, and darts afflictive pain.

Affluent

Loaded and blest with all the affluent store, Which human vows at smoking shrines implore.

Alternate

Grateful alternates of substantial.

Announce

Publish laws, announce Or life or death.

Annoy

Say, what can more our tortured souls annoy Than to behold, admire, and lose our joy?

Assertor

Faithful assertor of thy country's cause.

Avert

Till ardent prayer averts the public woe.

Bagatelle

Rich trifles, serious bagatelles.

Battle

To meet in arms, and battle in the plain.

Beastly

Beastly divinities and droves of gods.

Beat

To beat the woods, and rouse the bounding prey.

Below

The fairest child of Jove below.

Blubber

Dear Cloe, how blubbered is that pretty face!

Blushing

The dappled pink and blushing rose.

Bodice

Her bodice half way she unlaced.

Breakfast

First, sir, I read, and then I breakfast.

Brightness

The brightness of his parts . . . distinguished him.

Bronze

A print, a bronze, a flower, a root.

Butt

To prove who gave the fairer butt, John shows the chalk on Robert's coat.

Capable

Concious of joy and capable of pain.

Carol

Hovering swans . . . carol sounds harmonious.

Cart

She chuckled when a bawd was carted.

Cast

An heroic poem, but in another cast and figure.

Center

Thy joys are centered all in me alone.

Chain

Chained behind the hostile car.

Chairman

Breaks watchmen's heads and chairmen's glasses.

chew

He chews revenge, abjuring his offense.

circumstantial

Tedious and circumstantial recitals.

Clang

The fierce Caretes . . . clanged their sounding arms.

Clear

Many knotty points there are Which all discuss, but few can clear.

Clothes

She turned each way her frighted head, Then sunk it deep beneath the clothes.

Cogent

The cogent force of nature.

Comment

All the volumes of philosophy, With all their comments.

Compensate

The pleasures of life do not compensate the miseries.

Complete

This course of vanity almost complete.

Compliment

Monarchs should their inward soul disguise; . . . Should compliment their foes and shun their friends.

Conjurer

From the account the loser brings, The conjurer knows who stole the things.

Crimson

The blushing poppy with a crimson hue.

crook

He left his crook, he left his flocks.

Cuddle

She cuddles low beneath the brake; Nor would she stay, nor dares she fly.

Culprit

An author is in the condition of a culprit; the public are his judges.

Curb

Where pinching want must curb thy warm desires.

Dapple

The dappled pink and blushing rose.

Decrease

That might decrease their present store.

Defile

The husband murder'd and the wife defiled.

Deicide

Earth profaned, yet blessed, with deicide.

Delusion

And fondly mourned the dear delusion gone.

Derive

Power from heaven Derives, and monarchs rule by gods appointed.

Deter

My own face deters me from my glass.

Dictate

I credit what the Grecian dictates say.

Dimple

The dimple of her chin.

Disjoint

Yet what could swords or poisons, racks or flame, But mangle and disjoint the brittle frame?

Distance

Ten years' distance between one and the other.

Divinity

Beastly divinities, and droves of gods.

Domineer

His wishes tend abroad to roam, And hers to domineer at home.

Dotard

The sickly dotard wants a wife.

draw

Can I, untouched, the fair one's passions move, Or thou draw beauty and not feel its power?

Easily

Not soon provoked, she easily forgives.

Eke

'T will be prodigious hard to prove That this is eke the throne of love.

Elance

While thy unerring hand elanced . . . a dart.

Emit

Lest, wrathful, the far-shooting god emit His fatal arrows.

Exalt

Now Mars, she said, let Fame exalt her voice.

Excel

Excelling others, these were great; Thou, greater still, must these excel.

Fable

Vain now the tales which fabling poets tell.

Fair

You wish fair winds may waft him over.

Figure

If love, alas! be pain I bear, No thought can figure, and no tongue declare.

Flagrant

The beadle's lash still flagrant on their back.

Flare

Flaring in sunshine all the day.

Foolish

A foolish figure he must make.

Forcible

Like mingled streams, more forcible when joined.

Free

Set an unhappy prisoner free.

Front

His front yet threatens, and his frowns command.

Frown

His front yet threatens, and his frowns command.

Garnish

Matter and figure they produce; For garnish this, and that for use.

Gladsome

Of opening heaven they sung, and gladsome day.

Godship

O'er hills and dales their godships came.

Grace

The Loves delighted, and the Graces played.

Grave

O! may they graven in thy heart remain.

Group

The difficulty lies in drawing and disposing, or, as the painters term it, in grouping such a multitude of different objects.

Grumble

L'Avare, not using half his store, Still grumbles that he has no more.

Halloo

Old John hallooes his hounds again.

Hawk

A falconer Henry is, when Emma hawks.

Heave

Frequent for breath his panting bosom heaves.

Hollow

Forests grew Upon the barren hollows.

Home

Flandria, by plenty made the home of war.

Humble

She should be humble who would please.

Idiom

Some that with care true eloquence shall teach, And to just idioms fix our doubtful speech.

If

She doubts if two and two make four.

Image

Can we conceive Image of aught delightful, soft, or great?

Imagery

What can thy imagery of sorrow mean?

Imprint

And sees his num'rous herds imprint her sands.

Impulsive

Poor men! poor papers! We and they Do some impulsive force obey.

Incognito

'T was long ago Since gods come down incognito.

Inform

Breath informs this fleeting frame.

Instant

Impending death is thine, and instant doom.

Inthrall

She soothes, but never can inthrall my mind.

Jocund

Rural sports and jocund strains.

Jolly

And with his jolly pipe delights the groves.

Joy

To joy the friend, or grapple with the foe.

Lace

When Jenny's stays are newly laced.

Launch

He [Spenser] launches out into very flowery paths.

Level

Be the fair level of thy actions laid As temperance wills and prudence may persuade.

Lightly

The soft ideas of the cheerful note, Lightly received, were easily forgot.

Literature

Learning thy talent is, but mine is sense.

Liver

And try if life be worth the liver's care.

Look

Her friends would look on her the worse.

Lose

Fair Venus wept the sad disaster Of having lost her favorite dove.

Manage

What wars Imanage, and what wreaths I gain.

March

March them again in fair array.

May

How old may Phillis be, you ask.

Meanly

Would you meanly thus rely On power you know I must obey ?

Melancholic

Just as the melancholic eye Sees fleets and armies in the sky.

Merit

Those laurel groves, the merits of thy youth.

Ministerial

Enlightening spirits and ministerial flames.

Miss

She would never miss, one day, A walk so fine, a sight so gay.

Moan

Ye floods, ye woods, ye echoes, moan My dear Columbo, dead and gone.

Molder

When statues molder, and when arches fall.

Mortify

Mortify thy learned lust.

Natal

Propitious star, whose sacred power Presided o'er the monarch's natal hour.

Neglect

Rescue my poor remains from vile neglect.

Nick

And thence proceed to nicking sashes.

Nigh

The loud tumult shows the battle nigh.

Nod

Nations obey my word and wait my nod.

Palm

They palmed the trick that lost the game.

Paralytic

The cold, shaking, paralytic hand.

Part

The liver minds his own affair, . . . And parts and strains the vital juices.

Pass

She would not play, yet must not pass.

Passionate

Homer's Achilles is haughty and passionate.

Patient

Not patient to expect the turns of fate.

Poke

A man must have poked into Latin and Greek.

Poor

Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing.

Precipitate

Precipitate the furious torrent flows.

Prevent

Then had I come, preventing Sheba's queen.

Prostitute

Made bold by want, and prostitute for bread.

Pudding

Eat your pudding, slave, and hold your tongue.

Pursue

We happiness pursue; we fly from pain.

Question

And most we question what we most desire.

Radically

These great orbs thus radically bright.

Rap

With one great peal they rap the door.

Reflect

As I much reflected, much I mourned.

Reflection

He died; and oh! may no reflection shed Its poisonous venom on the royal dead.

Reflective

In the reflective stream the sighing bride, viewing her charms.

Reign

Saturn's sons received the threefold reign Of heaven, of ocean, and deep hell beneath.

Rejoice

While she, great saint, rejoices heaven.

Relax

In others she relaxed again, And governed with a looser rein.

Remarkable

'T is remarkable, that they Talk most who have the least to say.

Remnant

And quiet dedicate her remnant life To the just duties of an humble wife.

Repartee

Cupid was as bad as he; Hear but the youngster's repartee.

Reserve

My soul, surprised, and from her sex disjoined, Left all reserve, and all the sex, behind.

Respect

Seen without awe, and served without respect.

Respectful

With humble joy and with respectful fear.

Restore

Our fortune restored after the severest afflictions.

Retrieve

Accept my sorrow, and retrieve my fall.

Revert

Till happy chance revert the cruel scence.

Rhyme

For rhyme with reason may dispense, And sound has right to govern sense.

Right

Seldom your opinions err; Your eyes are always in the right.

Roll

What different sorrows did within thee roll.

Busy angels spread The lasting roll, recording what we say.

Rosy

While blooming youth and gay delight Sit thy rosy cheeks confessed.

Rough

A surly boatman, rough as wayes or winds.

Round

The feast was served; the bowl was crowned; To the king's pleasure went the mirthful round.

Sacrifice

Condemned to sacrifice his childish years To babbling ignorance, and to empty fears.

Scatter

Teach the glad hours to scatter, as they fly, Soft quiet, gentle love, and endless joy.

Scent

With lavish hand diffuses scents ambrosial.

Scheme

Artists and plans relieved my solemn hours; I founded palaces, and planted bowers.

Scorch

Lashed by mad rage, and scorched by brutal fires.

Scornful

Scornful of winter's frost and summer's sun.

Scratch

These nails with scratches deform my breast.

Semble

Where sembling art may carve the fair effect.

Settle

As people marry now and settle.

Shape

Grace shaped her limbs, and beauty decked her face.

Charmed by their eyes, their manners I acquire, And shape my foolishness to their desire.

Shelter

In vain I strove to cheek my growing flame, Or shelter passion under friendship's name.

Sicken

Raise this strength, and sicken that to death.

Sing

Bid her . . . sing Of human hope by cross event destroyed.

Sink

I raise of sink, imprison or set free.

Sit

Hardly the muse can sit the headstrong horse.

Slip

Thus one tradesman slips away, To give his partner fairer play.

Snap

Breaks the doors open, snaps the locks.

Sober

What parts gay France from sober Spain?

Soliloquy

The whole poem is a soliloquy.

Spark

The finest sparks and cleanest beaux.

Spin

They neither know to spin, nor care to toll.

Stanch

In politics I hear you 're stanch.

Station

The fig and date -- why love they to remain In middle station, and an even plain?

Store

Her mind with thousand virtues stored.

Streak

Now streaked and glowing with the morning red.

Streamy

Arcadia However streamy now, adust and dry, Denied the goddess water.

String

Round Ormond's knee thou tiest the mystic string.

Sublime

Easy in words thy style, in sense sublime.

Submissive

With a submissive step I hasted down.

Subtile

The slow disease and subtile pain.

Successive

Send the successive ills through ages down.

Suit

Raise her notes to that sublime degree Which suits song of piety and thee.

Sullen

And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast.

Tardy

Tardy to vengeance, and with mercy brave.

Taunt

With sacrilegious taunt and impious jest.

Terrible

Prudent in peace, and terrible in war.

Terror

Those enormous terrors of the Nile.

Thirst

He seeks his keeper's flesh, and thirsts his blood.

Thoughtful

Around her crowd distrust, and doubt, and fear, And thoughtful foresight, and tormenting care.

Threaten

By turns put on the suppliant and the lord: Threatened this moment, and the next implored.

Timely

Timely advised, the coming evil shun.

Transmissive

Itself a sun, it with transmissive light Enlivens worlds denied to human sight.

Tread

Forbid to tread the promised land he saw.

Tymbal

A tymbal's sound were better than my voice.

Untangle

Untangle but this cruel chain.

Vagrant

That beauteous Emma vagrant courses took.

Vagrants and outlaws shall offend thy view.

Verse

Virtue was taught in verse.

Vest

Had I been vested with the monarch's power.

Vex

Ten thousand torments vex my heart.

War

His complement of stores, and total war.

Wavy

Let her glad valleys smile with wavy corn.

Way

What impious ways my wishes took!

Woo

Each, like the Grecian artist, wooes The image he himself has wrought.

Wreathe

In the flowers that wreathe the sparkling bowl, Fell adders hiss.

Write

I chose to write the thing I durst not speak To her I loved.

You

In vain you tell your parting lover You wish fair winds may waft him over.