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, […]
To His Love When He Had Obtained Her by Sir Walter Raleigh
To His Love When He Had Obtained Her by Sir Walter Raleigh Now Serena be not coy, Since we freely may enjoy Sweet embraces, such delights, As will shorten tedious nights. Think that beauty will not stay With you always, but away, And that tyrannizing face That now holds such perfect grace Will both changed […]
To a Lady with an Unruly and Ill-mannered Dog Who Bit several Persons of Importance by Sir Walter Raleigh
To a Lady with an Unruly and Ill-mannered Dog Who Bit several Persons of Importance by Sir Walter Raleigh Your dog is not a dog of grace; He does not wag the tail or beg; He bit Miss Dickson in the face; He bit a Bailie in the leg. What tragic choices such a dog […]
The Silent Lover ii by Sir Walter Raleigh
The Silent Lover ii by Sir Walter Raleigh WRONG not, sweet empress of my heart, The merit of true passion, With thinking that he feels no smart, That sues for no compassion. Silence in love bewrays more woe Than words, though ne’er so witty: A beggar that is dumb, you know, May challenge double pity. […]
The Silent Lover i by Sir Walter Raleigh
The Silent Lover i by Sir Walter Raleigh PASSIONS are liken’d best to floods and streams: The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb; So, when affection yields discourse, it seems The bottom is but shallow whence they come. They that are rich in words, in words discover That they are poor in that which […]
The Nymph’s Reply To The Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh
The Nymph’s Reply To The Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh If all the world and love were young, And truth in every shepherd’s tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move To live with thee and be thy love. Time drives the flocks from field to fold When rivers rage and rocks grow cold, And Philomel […]
The Lie by Sir Walter Raleigh
The Lie by Sir Walter Raleigh Go, Soul, the body’s guest, Upon a thankless errand; Fear not to touch the best; The truth shall be thy warrant: Go, since I needs must die, And give the world the lie. Say to the court, it glows And shines like rotten wood; Say to the church, it […]
The Conclusion by Sir Walter Raleigh
The Conclusion by Sir Walter Raleigh EVEN such is Time, that takes in trust Our youth, our joys, our all we have, And pays us but with earth and dust; Who in the dark and silent grave, When we have wander’d all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days; But from this earth, […]
The Artist by Sir Walter Raleigh
The Artist by Sir Walter Raleigh The Artist and his Luckless Wife They lead a horrid haunted life, Surrounded by the things he’s made That are not wanted by the trade. The world is very fair to see; The Artist will not let it be; He fiddles with the works of God, And makes them […]
Stans Puer ad Mensam by Sir Walter Raleigh
Stans Puer ad Mensam by Sir Walter Raleigh Attend my words, my gentle knave, And you shall learn from me How boys at dinner may behave With due propriety. Guard well your hands: two things have been Unfitly used by some; The trencher for a tambourine, The table for a drum. We could not lead […]
Song of Myself by Sir Walter Raleigh
Song of Myself by Sir Walter Raleigh I was a Poet! But I did not know it, Neither did my Mother, Nor my Sister nor my Brother. The Rich were not aware of it; The Poor took no care of it. The Reverend Mr. Drewitt Never knew it. The High did not suspect it; The […]
Sestina Otiosa by Sir Walter Raleigh
Sestina Otiosa by Sir Walter Raleigh Our great work, the Otia Merseiana, Edited by learned Mister Sampson, And supported by Professor Woodward, Is financed by numerous Bogus Meetings Hastily convened by Kuno Meyer To impose upon the Man of Business. All in vain! The accomplished Man of Business Disapproves of Otia Merseiana, Turns his back […]