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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  “Phillis is my only joy”

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

I. Admiration

“Phillis is my only joy”

Sir Charles Sedley (1639–1701)

PHILLIS is my only joy

Faithless as the wind or seas;

Sometimes coming, sometimes coy,

Yet she never fails to please.

If with a frown

I am cast down,

Phillis, smiling

And beguiling,

Makes me happier than before.

Though, alas! too late I find

Nothing can her fancy fix;

Yet the moment she is kind

I forgive her all her tricks;

Which though I see,

I can’t get free;

She deceiving,

I believing,

What need lovers wish for more?