Comments on: Featured Poem: The Spring by Thomas Carew http://thereaderonline.co.uk/2009/03/featured-poem-the-spring-by-thomas-carew/ Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:22:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Denis Joe http://thereaderonline.co.uk/2009/03/featured-poem-the-spring-by-thomas-carew/comment-page-1/#comment-1947 Denis Joe Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:49:30 +0000 http://thereaderonline.co.uk/?p=1664#comment-1947 I love the poetry from this period and in particular the rakes such as Carew and Wilmot. For the period this is a lovely poem, full of the simplistic eroticism. I think the trouble is that the rhyme scheme seems forced and some of the line construction (in order to accommodate the rhyme) is cringe inducing. But for the time it is a very typical and well constructed poem. There are some parts of it (‘The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee.’ ‘Welcome the coming of the long’d-for May’, etc.) that seem as if the come from a pastoral poem of the Victorian times (admittedly by a hack writer) and have a more contemporary feel. But all in all this isn’t Carew at his best but it is him at his most inventive. I love the poetry from this period and in particular the rakes such as Carew and Wilmot. For the period this is a lovely poem, full of the simplistic eroticism. I think the trouble is that the rhyme scheme seems forced and some of the line construction (in order to accommodate the rhyme) is cringe inducing. But for the time it is a very typical and well constructed poem.

There are some parts of it (‘The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee.’ ‘Welcome the coming of the long’d-for May’, etc.) that seem as if the come from a pastoral poem of the Victorian times (admittedly by a hack writer) and have a more contemporary feel.

But all in all this isn’t Carew at his best but it is him at his most inventive.

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