Blog #6: Ingrateful Beauty Threatened

    Thomas Carew's "Ingrateful Beauty Threatened" has a correlation to William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18." In Carew's work, the speaker appears to be irritated with Celia because she has been misusing the fame he gave her: "Thou had'st in the forgotten crowd / Of common beauties lived unknown, / Had not my verse exhaled thy name, And imp'd the wings of Fame" (Carew). Celia was an ordinary face in a crowd, until the speaker chose her especially to write about. Now she is immortal and beautiful, but too proud. The correlation between Carew's poem and Shakespeare's sonnet is that both grant immortality to the beloved. In "Sonnet 18" the speaker says, "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee" (Shakespeare). Everyone ages and eventually passes away; beauty does not last forever. These poets challenge this concept in their writing, as their works are being read centuries after being written.