Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FOUR SONGS BY WAY OF CHORUS TO A PLAY: 1. OF JEALOUSY. A DIALOGUE by THOMAS CAREW

Poet Analysis

First Line: FROM WHENCE WAS FIRST THIS FURY HURL'D
Last Line: AND RAGING AS THE NORTHERN WIND.
Subject(s): JEALOUSY;
@3Question.@1 FROM whence was first this fury hurl'd,
This Jealousy, into the world?
Came she from hell? @3Answer.@1 No, there doth reign
Eternal Hatred, with Disdain;
But she the daughter is of Love,
Sister of Beauty. @3Question.@1 Then above
She must derive from the third sphere
Her heavenly offspring. @3Answer.@1 Neither there,
From those immortal flames, could she
Draw her cold frozen pedigree.
@3Question.@1 If nor from heaven nor hell, where then
Had she her birth? @3Answer.@1 I' th' hearts of men.
Beauty and Fear did her create,
Younger than Love, elder than Hate,
Sister to both; by Beauty's side
To Love, by Fear to Hate, alli'd.
Despair her issue is, whose race
Of fruitful mischiefs drowns the space
Of the wide earth in a swoln flood
Of wrath, revenge, spite, rage, and blood.
@3Question.@1 Oh, how can such a spurious line
Proceed from parents so divine?
@3Answer.@1 As streams which from their crystal spring
Do sweet and clear their waters bring,
Yet, mingling with the brackish main,
Nor taste nor colour they retain.
@3Question.@1 Yet rivers 'twixt their own banks flow
Still fresh; can Jealousy do so?
@3Answer.@1 Yes, whilst she keeps the steadfast ground
Of Hope and Fear her equal bound.
Hope, sprung from favour, worth, or chance,
Towards the fair object doth advance;
Whilst Fear, as watchful sentinel,
Doth the invading foe repel:
And Jealousy, thus mix'd, doth prove
The season and the salt of Love.
But when Fear takes a larger scope,
Stifling the child of Reason, Hope,
Then, sitting on th' usurped throne,
She like a tyrant rules alone:
As the wild ocean unconfin'd,
And raging as the northern wind.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net