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Thomas Carew Short Poems

Famous Short Thomas Carew Poems. Short poetry by famous poet Thomas Carew. A collection of the all-time best Thomas Carew short poems


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 face again,
When darkness doth at midnight reign,
The darkness flies, and light is hurl'd
Round about the silent world :
So as alike thou driv'st away
Both light and darkness, night and day.



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 with equal love combined, 
 Kindle never-dying fires. 
Where these are not, I despise 
Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes.

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 : 
For if she dart, like lightning, through the air 
Her beams of wrath, she kills me with despair : 
If she behold me with a pleasing eye, 
I surfeit with excess of joy, and die.

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 golden show'r
I swim in pleasure; if it prove
Disdain, that torrent will devour
My vulture-hopes; and he's possess'd
Of heaven, that's but from hell releas'd.

Then crown my joys, or cure my pain;
Give me more love, or more disdain.

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 Dana? in that golden shower, 
I swim in pleasure ; if it prove 
Disdain, that torrent will devour 
My vulture-hopes ; and he's possess'd 
Of heaven, that's but from hell released.
Then crown my joys or cure my pain : 
Give me more love or more disdain.



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, green, and sickly too;
Ask me why the stalk is weak
And bending, yet it doth not break:
I must tell you, these discover
What doubts and fears are in a lover.

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 with equal love combined,
Kindle never-dying fires:
Where these are not, I despise
Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes.

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 to thee, as this to them, 
Though a stranger to this place, 
Bewail in theirs thine own hard case: 
 For thou perhaps at thy return 
 May'st find thy Darling in an urn.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things