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. | |