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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


FOUR SONGS BY WAY OF CHORUS TO A PLAY: 4. INCOMMUNICABILITY OF LOVE by THOMAS CAREW

Poet Analysis

First Line: BY WHAT POWER WAS LOVE CONFIN'D
Last Line: WITHOUT A RIVAL, MONARCH OF THE BREAST.
Subject(s): LOVE - COMPLAINTS;

@3Question.@1 BY what power was love confin'd
To one object? Who can bind,
Or fix a limit to the free-born mind?
@3Answer.@1
Move at once but in one way,
So nor can minds to more than one love stray.
@3Question.@1
Love's twinn'd flame, his forked dart.
@3Answer.@1
@3Question.@1
@3Question.@1
Should th' effect not multiply
As fast i' th' heart, as doth the cause i' th' eye?
@3Answer.@1
Sense preferring neither fair,
Desire stands still, distracted 'twixt the pair.
So in equal distance lay
Two fair lambs in the wolf's way:
The hungry beast will starve ere choose his prey.

But where one is chief, the rest
Cease, and that's alone possess'd,
Without a rival, monarch of the breast.



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