The flowers anew, returning seasons bring; but beauty faded has no second spring.

He seems to have lived chiefly at Cambridge until he resigned his fellowship in 1708 and his pastorals were probably written in this period. Philips was a staunch Whig and a friend of Richard Steele and Joseph Addison. Works
His contemporary reputation rested on his pastorals and epistles particularly the description of winter addressed by him from Copenhagen (1709) to the Earl of Dorset.