Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden

Thomas Carew (1595?–1639?)

The Cruel Mistress

WE read of kings and gods that kindly took

A pitcher filled with water from the brook,

But I have daily tendered without thanks

Rivers of tears that overflow their banks;

A slaughtered bull will appease angry Jove,

A horse the Sun, a lamb the god of love,

But she disdains the spotless sacrifice

Of a pure heart that at her altar lies.

Vesta is not displeased if her chaste urn

Do with repairëd fuel ever burn,

But my saint frowns, though to her honoured name,

I consecrate a never-dying flame.

The Assyrian king did none i’ the furnace throw

But those that to his image did not bow,—

With bended knees I daily worship her,

Yet she consumes her own idolater.

Of such a goddess no times leave record,

That burned the temple where she was adored.