Love
Phillis, Sonnet XX
From Phillis
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.
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 XX.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/lodge/22/.
Chicago
Lodge, Thomas. “Phillis, Sonnet XX.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/lodge/22/.
Read this poem with the Codex →