T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
A Rapture
By Thomas Carew (1595?1639?)(From The Poems and Masque of Thomas Carew. London. 1640. Edited by Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth. London. 1893) |
I WILL enjoy thee now, my Celia, come, | |
And fly with me to Love’s Elysium, | |
The Giant, Honour, that keeps cowards out, | |
Is but a masquer, and the servile rout | |
Of baser subjects only bend in vain | 5 |
To the vast Idol; whilst the nobler train | |
Of valiant Lovers daily sail between | |
The huge Colossus’ legs, and pass unseen | |
Unto the blissful shore. Be bold and wise, | |
And we shall enter: the grim Swiss 1 denies | 10 |
Only to fools a passage, that not know | |
He is but form, and only frights in show. | |
Let duller eyes that look from far, draw near, | |
And they shall scorn what they were wont to fear. | |
We shall see how the stalking Pageant goes | 15 |
With borrow’d legs, a heavy load to those | |
That made and bear him: not, as we once thought, | |
The seed of Gods, but a weak model, wrought | |
By greedy men, that seek to enclose the common, | |
And within private arms impale free Woman. | 20 |
Come, then, and mounted on the wings of Love | |
We’ll cut the fleeting air, and soar above | |
The Monster’s head, and in the noblest seat | |
Of those blest shades quench and renew our heat. | |
There shall the Queens of Love and Innocence, | 25 |
Beauty and Nature, banish all offence | |
From our close Ivy-twines: there I’ll behold | |
Thy bared snow and thy unbraided gold; | |
There my enfranchised hand on every side | |
Shall o’er thy naked polish’d ivory slide. | 30 |
No curtain there, though of transparent lawn, | |
Shall be before thy virgin-treasure drawn; | |
But the rich Mine, to the enquiring eye | |
Exposed, shall ready still for mintage lie: | |
And we will coin young Cupids. There a bed | 35 |
Of roses and fresh myrtles shall be spread, | |
Under the cooler shade of Cypress groves; | |
Our pillows, of the down of Venus’ doves; | |
Whereon our panting limbs we’ll gently lay, | |
In the faint respites of our amorous play: | 40 |
That so our slumbers may in dreams have leisure | |
To tell the nimble fancy our past pleasure, | |
And so our souls—that cannot be embraced— | |
Shall the embraces of our bodies taste. | |
Meanwhile the babbling stream shall court the shore, | 45 |
Th’ enamour’d chirping Wood-choir shall adore | |
In varied tunes the Deity of Love; | |
The gentle blasts of Western wind shall move | |
The trembling leaves, and thro’ the close boughs breathe | |
Still music, whilst we rest ourselves beneath | 50 |
Their dancing shade: till a soft murmur, sent | |
From souls entranced in amorous languishment, | |
Rouse us, and shoot into our veins fresh fire, | |
Till we in their sweet ecstasy expire. | |
Then, as the empty Bee, that lately bore | 55 |
Into the common treasure all her store, | |
Flies ’bout the painted field with nimble wing, | |
Deflow’ring the fresh virgins of the Spring— | |
So will I rifle all the sweets that dwell | |
In thy delicious Paradise, and swell | 60 |
My bag with honey, drawn forth by the power | |
Of fervent kisses from each spicy flower. | |
I’ll seize the Rose-buds in their perfumed bed, | |
The violet knots, like curious mazes spread | |
O’er all the garden; taste the ripened cherries, | 65 |
The warm firm apple, tipp’d with coral berries. | |
Then will I visit with a wand’ring kiss | |
The Vale of lilies, and the Bower of bliss; | |
And where the beauteous region doth divide | |
Into two milky ways, my lip shall slide | 70 |
Down those smooth alleys, wearing as they go | |
A track for lovers on the printed snow; | |
Then climbing o’er the swelling Apennine, | |
Retire into the grove of Eglantine: | |
Where I will all those ravished sweets distil | 75 |
Through Love’s alembic, and with chymic skill | |
From the mixed mass one sovereign balm derive, | |
Then bring the great Elixir to thy hive. | |
Now in more subtle wreaths I will entwine | |
My sinewy limbs, my arms and legs, with thine. | 80 |
Thou like a sea of milk shalt lie display’d, | |
Whilst I the smooth calm ocean will invade, | |
With such a tempest, as when Jove of old | |
Fell down on Danæ in a stream of gold; | |
Yet my tall pinnace shall in the Cyprian strait | 85 |
Ride safe at anchor, and unload her freight: | |
My rudder with thy bold hand, like a tried | |
And skilful pilot, thou shalt steer, and guide | |
My Bark into Love’s channel, where it shall | |
Dance, as the bounding waves do rise or fall. | 90 |
Then shall thy circling arms embrace and clip | |
My naked body, and thy balmy lip | |
Bathe me in juice of kisses, whose perfume | |
Like a religious incense shall consume, | |
And send up holy vapours to those powers | 95 |
That bless our loves and crown our sportful hours: | |
That with such Halcyon calmness fix our souls | |
In steadfast peace, that no annoy controuls. | |
There no rude sounds fright us with sudden starts; | |
No jealous ears, when we unrip our hearts, | 100 |
Suck our discourse in; no observing spies | |
This blush, that glance traduce; no envious eyes | |
Watch our close meetings: nor are we betray’d | |
To rivals, by the bribed Chambermaid. | |
No wedlock bonds unwreath our twisted love; | 105 |
We seek no midnight Arbour nor dark grove, | |
To hide our kisses: there the hated name | |
Of husband, wife, chaste, modest, lust or shame, | |
Are vain and empty words, whose very sound | |
Was never heard in the Elysian ground. | 110 |
All things are lawful there, that may delight | |
Nature or unrestrained appetite: | |
Like and enjoy: to will and act is one: | |
We only sin when Love’s rites are not done. | |
The Roman Lucrece there reads the divine | 115 |
Lectures of Love’s great master, Aretine, | |
And knows as well as Lais how to move | |
Her pliant body in the act of love. | |
To quench the burning Ravisher, 2 she hurls | |
Her limbs into a thousand winding curls, | 120 |
And studies artful postures, such as be | |
Carved on the bark of every neighbouring tree, | |
By learned hands, that so adorned the rind | |
Of those fair plants, which, as they lay entwined, | |
Have fann’d their glowing fires. The Grecian dame, 3 | 125 |
That in her endless Web toil’d for a name, | |
As fruitless as her work, doth now display | |
Her self before the youth of Ithaca, | |
And th’ amorous sport of gamesome nights prefer | |
Before dull dreams of the lost Traveller. 4 | 130 |
Daphne hath broke her back, and that swift foot | |
Which th’ angry Gods had fast’ned with a root | |
To the fix’d earth, doth now unfetter’d run | |
To meet th’ embraces of the youthful Sun. 5 | |
She hangs upon him, like his Delphic Lyre; | 135 |
Her kisses blow the old, and breathe new, fire; | |
Full of her God, she sings inspired lays, | |
Sweet Odes of love, such as deserve the Bays, | |
Which she herself was. Next her, Laura lies | |
In Petrarch’s learned arms, drying those eyes | 140 |
That did in such sweet smooth-paced numbers flow, | |
As made the world enamour’d of his woe. | |
These, and ten thousand Beauties more, that died | |
Slave to the Tyrant, 6 now enlarged deride | |
His cancell’d Laws, and for their time mis-spent | 145 |
Pay unto Love’s Exchequer double rent. | |
Come then, my Celia, we’ll no more forbear | |
To taste our joys, struck with a Panic fear, | |
But will depose from his imperious sway | |
This proud Usurper, and walk free as they, | 150 |
With necks unyoked; nor is it just that he | |
Should fetter your soft sex with chastity, | |
Whom Nature made unapt for abstinence; | |
When yet this false Impostor can dispense | |
With human Justice and with sacred Right, | 155 |
And (maugre both their laws) command me fight | |
With Rivals, or when emulous Lovers dare | |
Equal with thine their Mistress’ eyes or hair. | |
If thou complain’st of wrong, and call my sword | |
To carve out thy revenge, upon that word | 160 |
He bids me fight and kill; or else he brands | |
With marks of infamy my coward hands. | |
And yet Religion bids from blood-shed fly, | |
And damns me for that act. Then tell me why | |
This goblin ‘Honour’, whom the world enshrined, | 165 |
Should make men Atheists, and not women Kind? |
Note 1. Warder. [back] |
Note 2. Tarquin. [back] |
Note 3. Penelope. [back] |
Note 4. Odysseus. [back] |
Note 5. Phœbus. [back] |
Note 6. i.e., Honour. [back] |