Philips was loath to publish his verse but his "Splendid Shilling" was included, without his consent, in a "Collection of Poems" published by David Brown and Benjamin Tooke in 1701. When another false copy appeared early in 1705, he printed a correct folio edition in February of that year. The "Splendid Shilling", a burlesque in Miltonic blank verse, was described by Joseph Addison as "the finest burlesque poem in the English language". It depicted the miseries of a debtor without a shilling in his purse with which to buy tobacco, wine, food and clothes. As a result of this work Philips was introduced to Robert Harley and employed to write "Blenheim" (1705) as a counterblast to Addison's celebration of the Battle of Blenheim in "The Campaign". The piece imitates Milton's verse, and the warfare is similar to that of the Iliad or Aeniad. In 1706 "Cerealia; an imitation of Milton" was published by Thomas Bennet, the bookseller who issued "Blenheim". This has been believed to be by Philips, but it was not included in the early editions of his works, and his authorship has been questioned. In January 1707-8 Fenton published in his "Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany Poems", a short "Bacchanalian Song" by Philips.