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Famous Phyllis Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Phyllis poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous phyllis poems. These examples illustrate what a famous phyllis poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...o shall say it? Who may know it,
That the clod is not a poet
Waiting but a gleam to waken
In a spirit music-shaken?
Phyllis, Phyllis, why be waiting?
In the woods the birds are mating.
From the tree beside the wall,
Hear the am'rous robin call.
Listen to yon thrush's trilling;
Phyllis, Phyllis, are you willing,
When love speaks from cave and tree,
Only we should silent be?
When the year, itself renewing,
All the world with flowers is strewing,
Then through Youth...Read more of this...



by Wilmot, John
...Love bade me hope, and I obeyed;
Phyllis continued still unkind:
Then you may e'en despair, he said,
In vain I strive to change her mind.

Honour's got in, and keeps her heart,
Durst he but venture once abroad,
In my own right I'd take your part,
And show myself the mightier God.

This huffing Honour domineers
In breasts alone where he has place:
But if true generous Love appears,
T...Read more of this...

by Wilmot, John
...

What ever is to come is not,
How can it then be mine?
The present moment's all my lot,
And that as fast as it is got,
Phyllis, is wholly thine.

Then talk not of inconstancy,
False hearts, and broken vows,
Ii, by miracle, can be,
This live-long minute true to thee,
'Tis all that heaven allows....Read more of this...

by Wilmot, John
...nose.

If thou would have me true, be wise,
And take to cleanly sinning,
None but fresh lovers' pricks can rise,
At Phyllis in foul linen....Read more of this...

by Wilmot, John
...nge, as others do,
Though you unjustly scorn;
Since that poor swain, that sighs for you
For you alone was born.
No, Phyllis, no, your heart to move
A surer way I'll try:
And to revenge my slighted love,
Will still love on, will still love on, and die.

When, kill'd with grief, Amyntas lies;
And you to mind shall call
The sighs that now unpitied rise;
The tears that vainly fall:
That welcome hour that ends this smart,
Will then begin your pain;
For such a faithful, ten...Read more of this...



by Field, Eugene
...Come, Phyllis, I've a cask of wine
That fairly reeks with precious juices,
And in your tresses you shall twine
The loveliest flowers this vale produces.

My cottage wears a gracious smile,--
The altar, decked in floral glory,
Yearns for the lamb which bleats the while
As though it pined for honors gory.

Hither our neighbors nimbly fare,--
The boys agog, t...Read more of this...

by Juana Inés de la Cruz, Sor
...approach, and I withdraw:
who but I could find
absence in the eyes,
presence in what's far?

    From the scorn of Phyllis,
now, alas, I must depart.
One is indeed unhappy
who misses even scorn!

    So caring is my love
that my present distress
minds hard-heartedness less
than the thought of its loss.

    Leaving, I lose more
than what is merely mine:
in Phyllis, never mine,
I lose what can't be lost.

    Oh, pity the poor person
who aroused such kind ...Read more of this...

by Wilmot, John
...nge, as others do,
Though you unjustly scorn;
Since that poor swain that sighs for you,
For you alone was born.
No, Phyllis, no, your heart to move
A surer way I'll try:
And to revenge my slighted love,
Will still love on, will still love on, and die.

When, killed with grief, Amintas lies
And you to mind shall call,
The sighs that now unpitied rise,
The tears that vainly fall,
That welcome hour that ends this smart
Will then begin your pain;
For such a faithful tende...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...
Where Corydon and Thyrsis met
Are at their savoury dinner set
Of herbs and other country messes,
Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses;
And then in haste her bower she leaves,
With Thestylis to bind the sheaves;
Or, if the earlier season lead,
To the tanned haycock in the mead.
Sometimes, with secure delight,
The upland hamlets will invite,
When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecks sound
To many a youth and many a maid
Dancing in the chequered shade,
And yo...Read more of this...

by Wilmot, John
...time that is to come is not;
How can it then be mine?
The present moment's all my lot;
And that, as fast as it is got,
Phyllis, is only thine.

Then talk not of inconstancy,
False hearts, and broken vows;
If I, by miracle, can be
This live-long minute true to thee,
'Tis all that Heav'n allows....Read more of this...

by Levy, Amy
...was young and you were here,
'Mid summer roses in summer weather,
What pleasant times we've had together!

We were not Phyllis, simple-sweet,
And Corydon; we did not meet
By brook or meadow, but among
A Philistine and flippant throng

Which much we scorned; (less rigorous
It had no scorn at all for us!)
How many an eve of sweet July,
Heedless of Mrs. Grundy's eye,

We've scaled the stairway's topmost height,
And sat there talking half the night;
And, gazing on the crowd ...Read more of this...

by Juana Inés de la Cruz, Sor
...Phyllis (Español)

Lo atrevido de un pincel,
Filis, dio a mi pluma alientos:
que tan gloriosa desgracia
más causa corrió que miedo.

   Logros de errar por tu causa
fue de mi ambición el cebo;
donde es el riesgo apreciable
¿qué tanto valdrá el acierto?

   Permite, pues, a mi pluma
segundo arriesgado vuelo,
pues no es el primer delito
que le d...Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...Phyllis, ah, Phyllis, my life is a gray day,
Few are my years, but my griefs are not few,
[Pg 75]Ever to youth should each day be a May-day,
Warm wind and rose-breath and diamonded dew—
Phyllis, ah, Phyllis, my life is a gray day.
Oh for the sunlight that shines on a May-day!
Only the cloud hangeth ove...Read more of this...

by Prior, Matthew
...How old may Phyllis be, you ask, 
Whose beauty thus all hearts engages? 
To answer is no easy task; 
For she has really two ages. 

Stiff in brocard, and pinch'd in stays, 
Her patches, paint, and jewels on; 
All day let envy view her face; 
And Phyllis is but twenty-one. 

Paint, patches, jewels laid aside, 
At night astronomers agree, 
The evening has the day ...Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...When Phyllis sighs and from her eyes
The light dies out; my soul replies[Pg 176]
With misery of deep-drawn breath,
E'en as it were at war with death.
When Phyllis smiles, her glance beguiles
My heart through love-lit woodland aisles,
And through the silence high and clear,
A wooing warbler's song I hear.
...Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...be led astray by the trick of a tress,
By a smiling face or a ribbon smart;"
And my heart was in sore distress.
Then Phyllis came by, and her face was fair,
The light gleamed soft on her raven hair;
And her lips were blooming a rosy red.
Then my heart spoke out with a right bold air:
"Thou art worse than a fool, O head!"
...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...And, at a moment, lets escape a tear; 
 Is it that passing train, 
Whose alien whirr offends her country ear? - 

 Nay! Phyllis does not dwell 
On visual and familiar things like these; 
 What moves her is the spell 
Of inner themes and inner poetries: 

 Could but by Sunday morn 
Her gay new gown come, meads might dry to dun, 
 Trains shriek till ears were torn, 
If Fred would not prefer that Other One....Read more of this...

by Butler, Ellis Parker
...O! fair, sweet Phyllis and sweet, fair May,
Which of you carried my heart away?
Who has my heart? I would like to know
Which was the guilty one of the two,
But I only know it was filched one day
By fair, sweet Phyllis, or sweet, fair May....Read more of this...

by Swift, Jonathan
...d
With footmen tippling under ground;
The charming Sylvia beating flax,
Her shoulders marked with bloody tracks;
Bright Phyllis mending ragged smocks:
And radiant Iris in the pox.
These are the goddesses enrolled
In Curll's collection, new and old,
Whose scoundrel fathers would not know 'em,
If they should meet them in a poem.
True poets can depress and raise,
Are lords of infamy and praise;
They are not scurrilous in satire,
Nor will in panegyric flatter.
Unjustl...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs