Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

Secrecy Protested

By Thomas Carew (1595?–1639?)

(From The Poems and Masque of Thomas Carew. London. 1640. Edited by Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth. London. 1893)

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	5
As silent as the night will be;
The God of Love himself (whose dart
Did first wound mine, and then thy heart),
Shall never know that we can tell
What sweets in stol’n embraces dwell.	10
This only means may find it out:
If, when I die, physicians doubt
What caused my death, and there to view
Of all their judgments which was true,—
Rip up my heart, oh! then, I fear,	15
The world will see thy picture there.