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Home  »  English Poetry I  »  63. Phillis

English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Thomas Lodge

63. Phillis

LOVE guards the roses of thy lips

And flies about them like a bee;

If I approach he forward skips,

And if I kiss he stingeth me.

Love in thine eyes doth build his bower,

And sleeps within their pretty shine;

And if I look the boy will lower,

And from their orbs shoot shafts divine.

Love works thy heart within his fire,

And in my tears doth firm the same;

And if I tempt it will retire,

And of my plaints doth make a game.

Love, let me cull her choicest flowers;

And pity me, and calm her eye;

Make soft her heart, dissolve her lowers;

Then will I praise thy deity.

But if thou do not, Love, I’ll truly serve her

In spite of thee, and by firm faith deserve her.