SOURCE: “The Strategy of Carew's Wit,” in A Review of English Literature, Vol. 5, No. 3, July, 1964, pp. 42-51.

In the following essay, King probes Carew's use of “conventional poetic rhetoric for unconventional purposes” and explores “Carew's attempt to impose a civilized order upon the desperate chaos of man's inner realities” through his poetry.

Thomas Carew is often praised for his sophisticated gallantry, his urbane assurance, and for the way in which he seems to express the best values of a rich civilization.¹ However, if we try to put our finger on what is mature, firm, or civilized in Carew's poetry we find ourselves circling around his wit. This means that a study of Carew's wit is a study in what distinguishes him from other poets. Wit may serve a poet in several ways. There is, for example, the wit of a double entendre which allows the speaker to mention...