"Has She a Bodkin and a Card? / She'll prick her Mind."
— Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1705, 1709
Metaphor
"Has She a Bodkin and a Card? / She'll prick her Mind."
Metaphor in Context
Sir, Will your Questions never end?
I trust to neither Spy nor Friend.
In short, I keep Her from the Sight
Of ev'ry Human Face.--She'll write.--
From Pen and Paper She's debarr'd.--
Has She a Bodkin and a Card?
She'll prick her Mind.--She will, You say:
But how shall She That Mind convey?
I keep Her in one Room: I lock it:
The Key (look here) is in this Pocket.
The Key-hole, is That left? Most certain.
She'll thrust her Letter thro'--Sir Martin.
(p. 108, ll. 1-8)
I trust to neither Spy nor Friend.
In short, I keep Her from the Sight
Of ev'ry Human Face.--She'll write.--
From Pen and Paper She's debarr'd.--
Has She a Bodkin and a Card?
She'll prick her Mind.--She will, You say:
But how shall She That Mind convey?
I keep Her in one Room: I lock it:
The Key (look here) is in this Pocket.
The Key-hole, is That left? Most certain.
She'll thrust her Letter thro'--Sir Martin.
(p. 108, ll. 1-8)
Categories
Provenance
HDIS
Citation
First printed in The Diverting Post (30 December-6 January, 1704/5).
See An English Padlock (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1705). <Link to ECCO>
See also the slightly longer version in Poems on Several Occasions (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, within Grays-Inn Gate next Grays-Inn Lane, 1709 [1708]). <Link to ECCO>
Reading The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, ed. H. Bunker Wright and Monroe K. Spears, 2 vols. Second Edition (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1971).
See An English Padlock (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1705). <Link to ECCO>
See also the slightly longer version in Poems on Several Occasions (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, within Grays-Inn Gate next Grays-Inn Lane, 1709 [1708]). <Link to ECCO>
Reading The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, ed. H. Bunker Wright and Monroe K. Spears, 2 vols. Second Edition (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1971).
Date of Entry
02/25/2004
