Love
Phillis, Sonnet XIX
From Phillis
Thou tyrannizing monarch that dost tire
My love-sick heart through those assaulting eyes,
That are the lamps which lighten my desire!
If nought but death thy fury may suffice,
Not for my peace, but for thy pleasure be it,
That Phillis, wrathful Phillis that repines me
All grace but death, may deign to come and see it,
And seeing grieve at that which she assigns me.
This only boon for all my mortal bane
I crave and cry for at thy mercy seat:
That when her wrath a faithful heart hath slain,
And soul is fled, and body reft of heat,
She might perceive how much she might command,
That had my life and death within her hand.
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 XIX.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/lodge/21/.
Chicago
Lodge, Thomas. “Phillis, Sonnet XIX.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/lodge/21/.
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