LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,283)
  • Text Authors (19,811)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,116)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Carew Raleigh (1605 - 1666)

The surprise
Language: English 
Careless of Love & free from Fears,
I sate and gaz'd on Stella's eyes,
thinking my Reason or my Years 
might keep me safe from all surprize.

But Love, that hath been long despis'd,
And made the Baud to others trust,
Finding his Deity surpriz'd,
And chang'd into degenerate Lust,

Summon'd up all his strength and power,
Making her face his Magazine,
Where Virtue's grace, and Beauty's flowre
He plac'd his Godhead to redeem.

So that too late (alas) I finde
No steeled Armour is of proof,
Nor can the best resolved minde
Resist her Beauty and her Youth.

But yet the folly to untwist,
That loving I deserve no blame;
Were it not Atheisme to resist
Where Godds themselves conspire her flame.

Text Authorship:

  • by Carew Raleigh (1605 - 1666) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Henry Lawes (c1595 - 1662), "The surprise", from the collection Ayres and Dialogues, Book 1 [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2014-04-15
Line count: 20
Word count: 123

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris