STELLA'S BIRTHDAY MARCH 13, 1719
by: Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
- TELLA this
day is thirty-four,
- (We shan't dispute a year or more:)
- However, Stella, be not troubled,
- Although thy size and years are doubled,
- Since first I saw thee at sixteen,
- The brightest virgin on the green;
- So little is thy form declin'd;
- Made up so largely in thy mind.
-
- Oh, would it please the gods to split
- Thy beauty, size, and years, and wit;
- No age could furnish out a pair
- Of nymphs so graceful, wise, and fair;
- With half the lustre of your eyes,
- With half your wit, your years, and size.
- And then, before it grew too late,
- How should I beg of gentle Fate,
- (That either nymph might have her swain,)
- To split my worship too in twain.
"Stella's Birthday March 13,
1719" is reprinted from Miscellanies in Prose and Verse.
Jonathan Swift. London: Benjamin Motte, 1727. |
MORE
POEMS BY JONATHAN SWIFT |
|