Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden
Thomas Carew (1595?–1639?)Extract from The Rapture
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The enamoured chirping wood-choir shall adore
In varied tunes the deity of Love,
The gentle blasts of western winds shall move
The trembling leaves, and through their close boughs breathe
Still music, while we rest ourselves beneath
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 extasy expire.
Daphne hath broke her bark, and that swift foot,
Which th’ angry gods had fastened with a root
To the fixed earth, doth now unfettered run
To meet the embraces of the youthful Sun;
She hangs upon him, like his Delphic lyre,
Her kisses blow the old, and breathe new fire;
Full of her god, she sings inspirëd 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,
That did in such sweet smooth-paced numbers flow
As made the world enamoured of his woe.
These, and ten thousand beauties more, that died
Slave to the tyrant, now, enlarged, deride
His cancelled laws, and, for their time misspent,
Pay into Love’s exchequer double rent.