Love
Phillis, Sonnet XVIII
From Phillis
As where two raging venoms are united,
Which of themselves dissevered life would sever,
The sickly wretch of sickness is acquited,
Which else should die, or pine in torments ever;
So fire and frost, that hold my heart in seizure,
Restore those ruins which themselves have wrought,
Where if apart they both had had their pleasure,
The earth long since her fatal claim had caught.
Thus two united deaths keep me from dying;
I burne in ice, and quake amidst the fire,
No hope midst these extremes or favour spying;
Thus love makes me a martyr in his ire.
So that both cold and heat do rather feed
My ceaseless pains, than any comfort breed.
Codex Note
One of the sonnets in Lodge's pastoral sequence Phillis, in which the shepherd Damon courts the shepherdess of the title.
Cite this poem
MLA
Lodge, Thomas. “Phillis, Sonnet XVIII.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/lodge/20/.
Chicago
Lodge, Thomas. “Phillis, Sonnet XVIII.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/lodge/20/.
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