William Walsh

William Walsh (1662–1708) was an English critic and poet and a member of parliament, an early friend and adviser of Alexander Pope, who praised him in An Essay on Criticism. He wrote amorous verse and the Dialogue Concerning Women (1691).

The poem here is the one printed under his name in Frederick Locker's Lyra Elegantiarum (London: E. Moxon, 1867), an anthology of vers de société and vers d'occasion by deceased authors; the texts follow that first edition.