Mediocrity in Love Rejected

By Thomas Carew 1595–1640 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.

Biography

Thomas Carew was the poetic arbiter elegantiae of the court of Charles I. He gave one last witty spin to the tradition of Petrarchan lyric, polishing and resetting the traditional conceits of love poetry for an increasingly sophisticated and aristocratic audience. Carew penned the most notorious erotic poem of the seventeenth century, "A Rapture," as well as what is generally regarded as the most accomplished of the Caroline . . .

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