English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 232. Know, Celia |
| | | Thomas Carew (1595(?)–1639(?)) |
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| KNOW, Celia, since thou art so proud, | |
| ’Twas I that gave thee thy renown; | |
| Thou hadst in the forgotten crowd | |
| Of common beauties lived unknown, | |
| Had not my verse extoll’d thy name, | 5 |
| And with it imp’d the wings of Fame. | |
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| That killing power is none of thine: | |
| I gave it to thy voice and eyes; | |
| Thy sweets, thy graces, all are mine; | |
| Thou art my star, shin’st in my skies; | 10 |
| Then dart not from thy borrowed sphere | |
| Lightning on him that fixed thee there. | |
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| Tempt me with such affrights no more, | |
| Lest what I made I uncreate; | |
| Let fools thy mystic forms adore, | 15 |
| I know thee in thy mortal state: | |
| Wise poets, that wrapt Truth in tales, | |
| Knew her themselves through all her veils. | |
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