Love

Phillis, Sonnet VI

by Thomas Lodge 1557–1625

From Phillis

Love

It is not death which wretched men call dying,
But that is very death which I endure,
When my coy-looking nymph, her grace envying,
By fatal frowns my domage doth procure.
It is not life which we for life approve,
But that is life when on her wool-soft paps
I seal sweet kisses which do batten love,
And doubling them do treble my good haps.
'Tis neither love the son, nor love the mother,
Which lovers praise and pray to; but that love is
Which she in eye and I in heart do smother.
Then muse not though I glory in my miss,
Since she who holds my heart and me in durance,
Hath life, death, love and all in her procurance.

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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 VI.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/lodge/8/.

Chicago

Lodge, Thomas. “Phillis, Sonnet VI.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/lodge/8/.

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