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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  291. To His Inconstant Mistress

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Thomas Carew. 1595?–1639?

291. To His Inconstant Mistress

WHEN thou, poor Excommunicate 
  From all the joys of Love, shalt see 
The full reward and glorious fate 
  Which my strong faith shall purchase me, 
  Then curse thine own inconstancy!         5
 
A fairer hand than thine shall cure 
  That heart which thy false oaths did wound; 
And to my soul a soul more pure 
  Than thine shall by Love’s hand be bound, 
  And both with equal glory crown’d.  10
 
Then shalt thou weep, entreat, complain 
  To Love, as I did once to thee; 
When all thy tears shall be as vain 
  As mine were then: for thou shalt be 
  Damn’d for thy false apostasy.  15