Carew, Thomas

(?1595-?1639)

   English cavalier poet and songwriter of lighthearted lyrics in praise of love, strongly influenced by John Donne and Ben Jonson. A lawyer's son, he was educated at Oxford University (which college is uncertain) and trained in law. He spent several years in the diplomatic service in Europe and in America before being appointed to the household of King Charles I, who had a high opinion of his wit and abilities and rewarded him with an estate. His masque, Coelum Britannicum, was performed by the king and his gentlemen in 1634. He translated a number of the Psalms and is said to have died regretting a life of libertinism. His elegy for John Donne was published with Donne's poems in 1633. His own poems were published a few weeks after his death. Some of his poems: "A Beautiful Mistress," "A Lady's Prayer to Cupid," "A Rapture," "Epitaph on the Lady Mary Villiers," "Good Counsel to a Young Maid," "In the Person of a Lady to Her Inconstant Servant," "On Sight of a Gentlewoman's Face in the Water," "The Carver, To His Mistress," "To Ben Jonson."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition, 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Erotic Literature: Twenty-four Centuries of Sensual Writing. Jane Mills, ed. HarperCollins, 1993. The Cavalier Poets: An Antholog y. Thomas Crofts, ed. Dover Publications, 1995. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The New Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse. Alastair Fowler, ed. Oxford University Press, 2004. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Wikipedia).