Love

Phillis, Sonnet XX

by Thomas Lodge 1557–1625

From Phillis

Love

Some praise the looks, and others praise the locks
Of their fair queens, in love with curious words;
Some laud the breast where love his treasure locks,
All like the eye that life and love affords.
But none of these frail beauties and unstable
Shall make my pen riot in pompous style;
More greater gifts shall my grave muse enable,
Whereat severer brows shall never smile.
I praise her honey-sweeter eloquence,
Which from the fountain of true wisdom floweth,
Her modest mien that matcheth excellence,
Her matchless faith which from her virtue groweth;
And could my style her happy virtues equal,
Time had no power her glories to enthral.

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One of the sonnets in Lodge's pastoral sequence Phillis, in which the shepherd Damon courts the shepherdess of the title.

MLA

Lodge, Thomas. “Phillis, Sonnet XX.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/lodge/22/.

Chicago

Lodge, Thomas. “Phillis, Sonnet XX.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/lodge/22/.

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