By today’s standards, A Rapture would likely be considered a highly-questionable tale of sexual assault and forced affections. The entire poem is told from the perspective of an unnamed man, who attempts to woo the object of his affections—a woman named Celia. In keeping with the chauvinistic and predatory actions of the unnamed narrator, Celia’s perspective is never explored or offered. Rather, the entire poem details the narrators arrogant attempts to impress her with his many achievements and his apparent lack of shortcomings. Throughout the text, the narrator never asks Celia what she desires in the relationship. Rather, he proclaims what they shall do and what they shall be; Celia’s sense of autonomy and choice is completely removed by his intensions. Despite this, the narrator clearly believes that his actions are loving and romantic and should be perceived as such. When viewed through the lens of our modernized society, Carew’s depiction becomes very predatory and problematic. Given the historical context of Carew’s life, however, this depiction serves as an interesting and insightful perspective on men’s views of women, love, romance, passion, and sex in the fifteen century.
As the poem continues, the narrator begins to express his desires more explicitly. It becomes clear that he wishes to have sex with the virginal Celia. In an interesting turn of events, however, the narrator suggests that her virginity is not a point of particular interest for him—which would have been quite contrary to the religious and moral views of the time, which dictated that a woman’s virginity was one of the most valuable things she could posses. Once again, however, Celia’s perspective on these sexual advances is not explored and it is possible—perhaps even likely—that she did not approve of, nor want the narrator’s sexual advances. Ultimately, the narrator does end up having sex with Celia, as described using the romanticized metaphors that would have been acceptable—yet still scandalous—for the time. Given the puritanical context surrounding this poem’s publication, despite its rather dubious consideration of the female character, Carew’s poem tackles a very controversial idea: that morality and sexuality should not be policed or legislated by puritanical religious views. The narrator of this poem does not wish to feel a sense of religious guilt for having sex with Celia, nor does he wish that her potential virginity was a point of such arousal and curiosity. Rather, the narrator wishes that men and women could have intercourse freely and without fear of religious repercussions.
Ultimately, Carew uses this poem to push back against the puritanical moral obligations of the time. He suggests that morality should not be legislated by religion and fantasizes about a sexual free-for-all, where men and women alike would be free to express and act upon their sexual desires freely. He views puritanical religion as a restrain against natural human tendencies. As such, Carew’s poem, though morally dubious when viewed through our modern lens, was quite radical for the time and challenged the moral policing of religious doctrine.
