Thomas Carew. Song. Eternity of Love Protested.

Thomas Carew

SONG.

ETERNITY OF LOVE PROTESTED.

HOW ill doth he deserve a lover's name
Whose pale weak flame
Cannot retain
His heat, in spite of absence or disdain ;
But doth at once, like paper set on fire
Burn and expire !
True love can never change his seat,
Nor did he ever love that could retreat.

That noble flame, which my breast keeps alive,
Shall still survive
When my soul's fled ;
Nor shall my love die, when my body's dead ;
That shall wait on me to the lower shade,
And never fade :
My very ashes in their urn
Shall, like a hallow'd lamp, for ever burn.

Source:
Vincent, Arthur, ed. The Poems of Thomas Carew.
London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., nd. 31.

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