Challenging the Concept of Virginity as Feminine Honor
The poem effectively discharges the concept that a woman’s sexual purity is coincident with honor. Carew situates this decision to connect honor with virginity as an arbitrary invention of men which has been designed to instill in women the fear of its loss. He compares this fear of losing honor to the fear engendered by the enormous figure of the ancient statue of the Colossus of Rhodes, suggesting that fearing the loss of honor makes as much sense as fearing statue. Both are there purely for the show, but neither has the power to cause harm.
Rejection of Puritanical Laws
The sexual potency of the poem reaches a critical mass when the speaker leaves behind his explicit account of making love to his fair Celia to address the reactionary imposition of laws deemed arbitrary exercises in moral-mongering forwarded by the Puritans enjoying increasing influence and power.
We seek no midnight arbor, no dark groves
To hide our kisses; there, the hated name
Of husband, wife, lust, modest, chaste, or shame
Are vain and empty words.
This is an impassioned call for liberty on issues of private matters. The poem is thus situated as a propaganda device to battle against the intrusion into relationships between consenting adults in the form of edicts and the passage of laws. The Cavalier Poets were engaged in a constant battle with the Puritans and other conservative opponents of the King on issues related to sensual pleasures and enjoyment of life.
Seize the Day
Another recurring motif in Cavalier verse was the admonition seize the day. The Latin phrase for this—carpe diem—is as strongly associated with the Cavaliers as their ornate fashion sense and their arrogant displays of utter disregard for moral codes of other which gave the group its name. They were truly cavalier in their contempt for any attempts to obstruct enjoyment of the finer things in life merely on the basis of ethical valuation. The sexual episode described in the narrative of “A Rapture” could and has been interpreted as a heavily romanticized tale of forcible assault, but from the Cavalier perspective it should be interpreted as seizing the opportunity rather than being cowed into inaction by adherence to an irrational application of meaningless concepts like honor as an excuse for maintaining virginity.
