Love
Phillis, Sonnet VI
From Phillis
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.
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 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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