Carew, Thomas (c. 1595–c. 1640)

English poet. Often associated with the ‘Cavalier poets’, he was a courtier and gentleman of the privy chamber to Charles I, for whom he wrote the spectacular masque Coelum Britannicum (1634). Poems (1640) revealed his ability to weave metaphysical wit, eroticism, and a jewelled lyricism in his work.

His first important work was an elegy written on the death of the metaphysical poet John Donne, which was published in 1633 in the first edition of Donne's poetry. His love poems, especially ‘The Rapture’ and delicate lyrics such as ‘Ask me no more where Jove bestows’, were widely circulated in manuscript.