The Spring by Thomas Carew

The Spring by Thomas Carew Now that the winter’s gone, the earth hath lost Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream Upon the silver lake or crystal stream; But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth, And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth To […]

The Primrose by Thomas Carew

The Primrose by Thomas Carew Ask me why I send you here The firstling of the infant year; Ask me why I send to you This primrose all bepearled with dew: I straight will whisper in your ears, The sweets of love are washed with tears. Ask me why this flower doth show So yellow, […]

Song. Murdering Beauty by Thomas Carew

Song. Murdering Beauty by Thomas Carew I’LL gaze no more on her bewitching face, Since ruin harbours there in every place ; For my enchanted soul alike she drowns With calms and tempests of her smiles and frowns. I’ll love no more those cruel eyes of hers, Which, pleased or anger’d, still are murderers : […]

Song. Mediocrity in love rejected. by Thomas Carew

Song. Mediocrity in love rejected. by Thomas Carew GIVE me more love or more disdain ; The torrid or the frozen zone Bring equal ease unto my pain, The temperate affords me none : Either extreme of love or hate, Is sweeter than a calm estate. Give me a storm ; if it be love, […]

Song. Good Counsel to a Young Maid by Thomas Carew

Song. Good Counsel to a Young Maid by Thomas Carew GAZE not on thy beauty’s pride, Tender maid, in the false tide That from lovers’ eyes doth slide. Let thy faithful crystal show How thy colours come and go : Beauty takes a foil from woe. Love, that in those smooth streams lies Under pity’s […]

Song: Eternity of Love Protested by Thomas Carew

Song: Eternity of Love Protested by Thomas Carew How ill doth he deserve a lover’s name, Whose pale weak flame Cannot retain His heat, in spite of absence or disdain; But doth at once, like paper set on fire, Burn and expire; True love can never change his seat, Nor did her ever love, that […]

Song. A Beautiful Mistress. by Thomas Carew

Song. A Beautiful Mistress. by Thomas Carew IF when the sun at noon displays His brighter rays, Thou but appear, He then, all pale with shame and fear, Quencheth his light, Hides his dark brow, flies from thy sight, And grows more dim, Compared to thee, than stars to him. If thou but show thy […]

Song by Thomas Carew

Song by Thomas Carew ASK me no more where Jove bestows, When June is past, the fading rose; For in your beauty’s orient deep These flowers, as in their causes, sleep. Ask me no more whither do stray The golden atoms of the day; For in pure love heaven did prepare Those powders to enrich […]

Secrecy Protested. by Thomas Carew

Secrecy Protested. by Thomas Carew FEAR not, dear love, that I’ll reveal Those hours of pleasure we two steal ; No eye shall see, nor yet the sun Descry, what thou and I have done. No ear shall hear our love, but we Silent as the night will be ; The god of love himself […]

Persuasions to Joy, a Song by Thomas Carew

Persuasions to Joy, a Song by Thomas Carew IF the quick spirits in your eye Now languish and anon must die; If every sweet and every grace Must fly from that forsaken face; Then, Celia, let us reap our joys Ere Time such goodly fruit destroys. Or if that golden fleece must grow For ever […]

My Mistress Commanding Me to Return Her Letters. by Thomas Carew

My Mistress Commanding Me to Return Her Letters. by Thomas Carew SO grieves th’ adventurous merchant, when he throws All the long toil’d-for treasure his ship stows Into the angry main, to save from wrack Himself and men, as I grieve to give back These letters : yet so powerful is your sway As if […]

Mediocrity in Love Rejected by Thomas Carew

Mediocrity in Love Rejected by Thomas Carew Give me more love or more disdain; The torrid, or the frozen zone, Bring equal ease unto my pain; The temperate affords me none; Either extreme, of love, or hate, Is sweeter than a calm estate. Give me a storm; if it be love, Like Danae in that […]

Lips and Eyes. by Thomas Carew

Lips and Eyes. by Thomas Carew IN Celia’s face a question did arise, Which were more beautiful, her lips or eyes ? “ We,” said the eyes, “send forth those pointed darts Which pierce the hardest adamantine hearts.” “ From us,” repli’d the lips, “proceed those blisses Which lovers reap by kind words and sweet […]

Know, Celia, Since Thou Art So Proud by Thomas Carew

Know, Celia, Since Thou Art So Proud by Thomas Carew Know, Celia, since thou art so proud, ‘Twas I that gave thee thy renown. Thou hadst in the forgotten crowd Of common beauties lived unknown Had not my verse extolled thy name, And with it imped the wings of Fame. That killing power is none […]

Ingrateful Beauty Threatened by Thomas Carew

Ingrateful Beauty Threatened by Thomas Carew Know Celia, since thou art so proud, ‘Twas I that gave thee thy renown; Thou hadst, in the forgotten crowd Of common beauties, liv’d unknown, Had not my verse exhal’d thy name, And with it imp’d the wings of fame. That killing power is none of thine, I gave […]

I Do Not Love Thee For That Fair by Thomas Carew

I Do Not Love Thee For That Fair by Thomas Carew I do not love thee for that fair Rich fan of thy most curious hair; Though the wires thereof be drawn Finer than threads of lawn, And are softer than the leaves On which the subtle spider weaves. I do not love thee for […]

He That Loves A Rosy Cheek by Thomas Carew

He That Loves A Rosy Cheek by Thomas Carew He that loves a rosy cheek, Or a coral lip admires, Or from star-like eyes doth seek Fuel to maintain his fires: As old Time makes these decay, So his flames must waste away. But a smooth and steadfast mind, Gentle thoughts, and calm desires, Hearts […]

Epitaph On the Lady Mary Villiers by Thomas Carew

Epitaph On the Lady Mary Villiers by Thomas Carew THE Lady Mary Villiers lies Under this stone; with weeping eyes The parents that first gave her birth, And their sad friends, laid her in earth. If any of them, Reader, were Known unto thee, shed a tear; Or if thyself possess a gem As dear […]

Epitaph for Maria Wentworth by Thomas Carew

Epitaph for Maria Wentworth by Thomas Carew And here the precious dust is laid; Whose purely-temper’d clay was made So fine that it the guest betray’d. Else the soul grew so fast within, It broke the outward shell of sin, And so was hatch’d a cherubin. In height, it soar’d to God above; In depth, […]

Disdain Returned by Thomas Carew

Disdain Returned by Thomas Carew He that loves a rosy cheek, Or a coral lip admires, Or from starlike eyes doth seek Fuel to maintain his fires; As old Time makes these decay, So his flames must waste away. But a smooth and steadfast mind, Gentle thoughts and calm desires, Hearts with equal love combined, […]

Celia Beeding, To the Surgeon by Thomas Carew

Celia Beeding, To the Surgeon by Thomas Carew Fond man, that canst believe her blood Will from those purple channels flow; Or that the pure untainted flood Can any foul distemper know; Or that thy weak steel can incise The crystal case wherein it lies: Know, her quick blood, proud of his seat, Runs dancing […]

Boldness in Love by Thomas Carew

Boldness in Love by Thomas Carew Mark how the bashful morn in vain Courts the amorous marigold, With sighing blasts and weeping rain, Yet she refuses to unfold. But when the planet of the day Approacheth with his powerful ray, The she spreads, then she receives His warmer beams into her virgin leaves. So shalt […]

Ask Me No More by Thomas Carew

Ask Me No More by Thomas Carew Ask me no more where Jove bestows, When June is past, the fading rose; For in your beauty’s orient deep These flowers, as in their causes, sleep. Ask me no more whither do stray The golden atoms of the day; For in pure love heaven did prepare Those […]

Another by Thomas Carew

Another by Thomas Carew THIS little vault, this narrow room, Of Love and Beauty is the tomb; The dawning beam, that ‘gan to clear Our clouded sky, lies darken’d here, For ever set to us: by Death Sent to enflame the World Beneath. ‘Twas but a bud, yet did contain More sweetness than shall spring […]

An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of St. Paul’s, Dr. John by Thomas Carew

An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of St. Paul’s, Dr. John by Thomas Carew Can we not force from widow’d poetry, Now thou art dead (great Donne) one elegy To crown thy hearse? Why yet dare we not trust, Though with unkneaded dough-bak’d prose, thy dust, Such as th’ unscissor’d churchman from the […]

A Song: When June is Past, the Fading Rose by Thomas Carew

A Song: When June is Past, the Fading Rose by Thomas Carew Ask me no more where Jove bestows, When June is past, the fading rose; For in your beauty’s orient deep These flowers as in their causes, sleep. Ask me no more whither doth stray The golden atoms of the day; For in pure […]

A Song by Thomas Carew

A Song by Thomas Carew Ask me no more where Jove bestows, When June is past, the fading rose; For in your beauty’s orient deep These flowers, as in their causes, sleep. Ask me no more whither doth stray The golden atoms of the day; For in pure love heaven did prepare Those powders to […]

A prayer to the Wind by Thomas Carew

A prayer to the Wind by Thomas Carew Go thou gentle whispering wind, Bear this sigh; and if thou find Where my cruel fair doth rest, Cast it in her snowy breast, So, enflam’d by my desire, It may set her heart a-fire. Those sweet kisses thou shalt gain, Will reward thee for thy pain: […]

A Divine Mistress by Thomas Carew

A Divine Mistress by Thomas Carew In Nature’s pieces still I see Some error that might mended be; Something my wish could still remove, Alter or add; but my fair love Was fram’d by hands far more divine, For she hath every beauteous line: Yet I had been far happier, Had Nature, that made me, […]

A Cruel Mistress. by Thomas Carew

A Cruel Mistress. by Thomas Carew We read of kings and gods that kindly took A pitcher fill’d with water from the brook ; But I have daily tender’d without thanks Rivers of tears that overflow their banks. A slaughter’d bull will appease angry Jove, A horse the Sun, a lamb the god of love, […]