Song: To My Inconstant Mistress
by Thomas Carew

English Cavalier poet. His longest poem is 'A Rapture', which effectively combines wit and eroticism. His famous Elegy for John Donne was included in the first edition of Donne's Poems in 1633. He also wrote many lyrics and a masque, Coelum Britannicum (1634). Other Cavalier poets include Sir John Suckling, Robert Herrick and Richard Lovelace.

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Song: To My Inconstant Mistress
by Thomas Carew

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.

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 crowned.

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
Damned for thy false apostasy.

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Song: To My Inconstant Mistress by Thomas Carew