Caroline

Herbert's poems were first published shortly after his death, in The Temple, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations by Mr. George Herbert, 1633. Some of them had already circulated in MS. His poems are so full of biblical echoes or quotations, and his images so often liturgical, that only full annotation (rather than mere reference) can properly bring out his indebtedness.

• Cranfield, Nicholas W. S.. “Corbett, Richard (1582-1635).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

• The Poems of John Cleveland. Ed. Brian Morris and Eleanor Withington. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.
• Cousins, A. D.. “Cleveland, John (bap. 1613, d. 1658).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

• Pailin, David A.. “Herbert, Edward, first Baron Herbert of Cherbury and first Baron Herbert of Castle Island (1582?-1648).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

Except for the elegy on Donne, which first appeared in Donne's Poems, 1633, the poems by Carew in this selection were first published shortly after his death, in Poems, 1640. A considerable number of them were set to music, and numerous manuscript versions of this song exist with considerable differences of text.