Love Poems

by Thomas Carew

Perhaps it is a coincidence (and perhaps not!) but so many major poets appear to be be 'larger-than-life' characters with a greater than average lust for the pleasures of life, including the more carnal ones. Carew by all accounts fits nicely into this mould and by reputation he was a dissolute rake; this  may or may not have been a fair description of him but some of his poetry certainly supported the legend and although, judged by the standards of the 21st Century, they are fairly innocuous,  during the first half of the 17th Century the majority of people who were able to read them may well have considered them to be sexually explicit and shocking. Certainly, the Church of the day was enraged; so much so that he was refused Final Communion on his deathbed.  He was however a favourite of King Charles 1 who appointed him 'Sewer In Ordinary to The King' which despite the dubious title meant that he was in control of the King's dinner table; Charles' head was eventually chopped off and England fell under the control of the puritanical Roundheads so it is just possible that Carew was purer than driven snow, but just  suffered, as one of the so-called 'Cavalier Poets'  from a bad press. Read his poems and judge for yourself!

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