| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | Secrecy Protested | | By Thomas Carew (1595?–1639?) |
| | (From The Poems and Masque of Thomas Carew. London. 1640. Edited by Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth. London. 1893) |
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FEAR not, dear Love, that I’ll reveal | |
| Those hours of pleasure we two steal; | |
| No eye shall see, nor yet the Sun | |
| Descry, what thou and I have done. | |
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| No ear shall hear our love, but we | 5 |
| As silent as the night will be; | |
| The God of Love himself (whose dart | |
| Did first wound mine, and then thy heart), | |
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| Shall never know that we can tell | |
| What sweets in stol’n embraces dwell. | 10 |
| This only means may find it out: | |
| If, when I die, physicians doubt | |
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| What caused my death, and there to view | |
| Of all their judgments which was true,— | |
| Rip up my heart, oh! then, I fear, | 15 |
| The world will see thy picture there. | | | |
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