Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SPARK, by THOMAS CAREW Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: My first love, whom all beauties did adorn Last Line: Many less faces in her place are born. Subject(s): Love – Beginnings; Infidelity; Guilt | ||||||||
MY first love, whom all beauties did adorn, Firing my heart suppress'd it with her scorn; Since like to tinder in my breast it lies, By every sparkle made a sacrifice. Each wanton eye now kindles my desire, And that is free to all which was entire: Desiring more, by the desire I lost, As those that in consumptions hunger most, And now my wand'ring thoughts are not confin'd Unto one woman but to womankind; This for her shape I love, that for her face, This for her gesture or some other grace, And, where I none of these do use to find, I choose her by the kernel not the rind; And so I hope, since my first hopes are gone, To find in many what I lost in one, And, like to merchants after some great loss, Trade by retail that cannot now in gross. The fault is hers that made me go astray, He needs must wander that has lost his way. Guiltless I am, she did this change provoke And made that charcoal which to her was oak. And, as a looking-glass from the aspect, Whilst it is whole, doth but one face reflect, But, being crack'd or broken, there are shown Many half-faces, which at first were one, So love unto my heart did first prefer Her image, and there planted none but her, But since 'twas broke and martyr'd by her scorn Many less faces in her place are born. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CASUALTY REPORT by PAUL MARIANI THE FEATHER AT BREENDONCK by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR A LONG LINE OF DOCTORS by CAROLYN KIZER PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE MEDUSA by MARILYN NELSON THE DEBT by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR NUMBER FIVE by JOHN CROWE RANSOM A DEPOSITION FROM LOVE by THOMAS CAREW A PASTORAL DIALOGUE: SHEPHERD, NYMPH, CHORUS by THOMAS CAREW |
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