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, […]
Specula by Thomas Edward Brown
Specula by Thomas Edward Brown When He appoints to meet thee, go thou forth— It matters not If south or north, Bleak waste or sunny plot. Nor think, if haply He thou seek’st be late, He does thee wrong. To stile or gate Lean thou thy head, and long! It may be that to spy […]
Salve! by Thomas Edward Brown
Salve! by Thomas Edward Brown TO live within a cave–it is most good; But, if God make a day, And some one come, and say, ‘Lo! I have gather’d faggots in the wood!’ E’en let him stay, And light a fire, and fan a temporal mood! So sit till morning! when the light is grown […]
Risus Dei by Thomas Edward Brown
Risus Dei by Thomas Edward Brown Methinks in Him there dwells alway A sea of laughter very deep, Where the leviathans leap, And little children play, Their white feet twinkling on its crisped edge; But in the outer bay The strong man drives the wedge Of polished limbs, And swims. Yet there is one will […]
Pain by Thomas Edward Brown
Pain by Thomas Edward Brown The Man that hath great griefs I pity not; ’Tis something to be great In any wise, and hint the larger state, Though but in shadow of a shade, God wot! Moreover, while we wait the possible, This man has touched the fact, And probed till he has felt the […]
Opifex by Thomas Edward Brown
Opifex by Thomas Edward Brown As I was carving images from clouds, And tinting them with soft ethereal dyes Pressed from the pulp of dreams, one comes, and cries:– “Forbear!” and all my heaven with gloom enshrouds. “Forbear!” Thou hast no tools wherewith to essay The delicate waves of that elusive grain: Wouldst have due […]
My Garden by Thomas Edward Brown
My Garden by Thomas Edward Brown A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! Rose plot, Fringed pool, Ferned grot– The veriest school Of peace; and yet the fool Contends that God is not– Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool? Nay, but I have a sign; ‘Tis very sure God walks in […]
Land, Ho! by Thomas Edward Brown
Land, Ho! by Thomas Edward Brown I know ’tis but a loom of land, Yet is it land, and so I will rejoice, I know I cannot hear His voice Upon the shore, nor see Him stand; Yet is it land, ho! land. The land! the land! the lovely land! ‘Far off,’ dost say? Far […]
Jessie by Thomas Edward Brown
Jessie by Thomas Edward Brown WHEN Jessie comes with her soft breast, And yields the golden keys, Then is it as if God caress’d Twin babes upon His knees– Twin babes that, each to other press’d, Just feel the Father’s arms, wherewith they both are bless’d. But when I think if we must part, And […]
If Thou Could’st Empty All Thyself Of Self by Thomas Edward Brown
If Thou Could’st Empty All Thyself Of Self by Thomas Edward Brown If thou could’st empty all thyself of self, Like to a shell dishabited, Then might He find thee on the ocean shelf, And say, “This is not dead,” And fill thee with Himself instead. But thou are all replete with very thou And […]
Ibant Obscur? by Thomas Edward Brown
Ibant Obscur? by Thomas Edward Brown To-night I saw three maidens on the beach, Dark-robed descending to the sea, So slow, so silent of all speech, And visible to me Only by that strange drift-light, dim, forlorn, Of the sun’s wreck and clashing surges born. Each after other went, And they were gathered to his […]
I bended unto me a Bough by Thomas Edward Brown
I bended unto me a Bough by Thomas Edward Brown I bended unto me a bough of May, That I might see and smell: It bore it in a sort of way, It bore it very well. But, when I let it backward sway, Then it were hard to tell With what a toss, with […]
Dora by Thomas Edward Brown
Dora by Thomas Edward Brown SHE knelt upon her brother’s grave, My little girl of six years old– He used to be so good and brave, The sweetest lamb of all our fold; He used to shout, he used to sing, Of all our tribe the little king– And so unto the turf her ear […]
Disguises by Thomas Edward Brown
Disguises by Thomas Edward Brown High stretched upon the swinging yard, I gather in the sheet; But it is hard And stiff, and one cries haste. Then He that is most dear in my regard Of all the crew gives aidance meet; But from His hands, and from His feet, A glory spreads wherewith the […]
Time of Roses by Thomas Hood
Time of Roses by Thomas Hood It was not in the Winter Our loving lot was cast; It was the time of roses— We pluck’d them as we pass’d! That churlish season never frown’d On early lovers yet: O no—the world was newly crown’d With flowers when first we met! ‘Twas twilight, and I bade […]
Tim Turpin by Thomas Hood
Tim Turpin by Thomas Hood Tim Turpin he was gravel-blind, And ne’er had seen the skies : For Nature, when his head was made, Forgot to dot his eyes. So, like a Christmas pedagogue, Poor Tim was forced to do – Look out for pupils; for he had A vacancy for two. There’s some have […]
The World is with Me by Thomas Hood
The World is with Me by Thomas Hood The world is with me, and its many cares, Its woes–its wants–the anxious hopes and fears That wait on all terrestrial affairs– The shades of former and of future years– Forboding fancies and prophetic tears, Quelling a spirit that was once elate. Heavens! what a wilderness the […]