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C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

When Phyllis Laughs

By John Hay (1838–1905)

WHEN Phyllis laughs, in sweet surprise

My heart asks if my dazzling eyes

Or if my ears take more delight

In luscious sound or beauty bright,

When Phyllis laughs.

In crinkled eyelids hid Love lies,

In the soft curving lips I prize

Promise of raptures infinite,

When Phyllis laughs.

Far to the Orient fancy flies.

I see beneath Idalian skies,

Clad only in the golden light,

Calm in perfection’s peerless might,

The laughter-loving Venus rise,

When Phyllis laughs.