[
  {
    "title": "A Letter to Lady Margaret Cavendish Holles-Harley, when a Child",
    "author": "Matthew Prior",
    "lines": [
      "MY noble, lovely, little Peggy,",
      "Let this my First Epistle beg ye,",
      "At dawn of morn, and close of even,",
      "To lift your heart and hands to Heaven.",
      "In double duty say your prayer:",
      "Our Father first, then Notre Pere.",
      "",
      "And, dearest child, along the day,",
      "In every thing you do and say,",
      "Obey and please my lord and lady,",
      "So God shall love and angels aid ye.",
      "",
      "If to these precepts you attend,",
      "No second letter need I send,",
      "And so I rest your constant friend."
    ],
    "linecount": "13"
  },
  {
    "title": "To a Child of Quality, Five Years Old, 1704. The Author then Forty",
    "author": "Matthew Prior",
    "lines": [
      "LORDS, knights, and squires, the numerous band",
      "   That wear the fair Miss Mary's fetters,",
      "Were summoned by her high command",
      "   To show their passions by their letters.",
      "",
      "My pen amongst the rest I took,",
      "   Lest those bright eyes, that cannot read,",
      "Should dart their kindling fire, and look",
      "   The power they have to be obey'd.",
      "",
      "Nor quality, nor reputation,",
      "   Forbid me yet my flame to tell;",
      "Dear Five-years-old befriends my passion,",
      "   And I may write till she can spell.",
      "",
      "For, while she makes her silkworms beds",
      "   With all the tender things I swear;",
      "Whilst all the house my passion reads,",
      "   In papers round her baby's hair;",
      "",
      "She may receive and own my flame;",
      "   For, though the strictest prudes should know it,",
      "She'll pass for a most virtuous dame,",
      "   And I for an unhappy poet.",
      "",
      "Then too, alas! when she shall tear",
      "   The rhymes some younger rival sends,",
      "She'll give me leave to write, I fear,",
      "   And we shall still continue friends.",
      "",
      "For, as our different ages move,",
      "   'Tis so ordain'd (would Fate but mend it!),",
      "That I shall be past making love",
      "   When she begins to comprehend it."
    ],
    "linecount": "28"
  },
  {
    "title": "On My Birthday, July 21",
    "author": "Matthew Prior",
    "lines": [
      "I, MY dear, was born to-day--",
      "So all my jolly comrades say:",
      "They bring me music, wreaths, and mirth,",
      "And ask to celebrate my birth:",
      "Little, alas! my comrades know",
      "That I was born to pain and woe;",
      "To thy denial, to thy scorn,",
      "Better I had ne'er been born:",
      "I wish to die, even whilst I say--",
      "'I, my dear, was born to-day.'",
      "I, my dear, was born to-day:",
      "Shall I salute the rising ray,",
      "Well-spring of all my joy and woe?",
      "Clotilda, thou alone dost know.",
      "Shall the wreath surround my hair?",
      "Or shall the music please my ear?",
      "Shall I my comrades' mirth receive,",
      "And bless my birth, and wish to live?",
      "Then let me see great Venus chase",
      "Imperious anger from thy face;",
      "Then let me hear thee smiling say--",
      "'Thou, my dear, wert born to-day.'"
    ],
    "linecount": "22"
  }
]