Back to short poems—this week’s choice is celebrating love, since it would have been our 22nd wedding anniversary last Saturday.
When you lov’d me and I lov’d you
William Cartwright (1611—1643)
Then both of us were born anew.
Poem 384. To Chloe, Who Wish’d Herself Young Enough For Me
Chloe, why wish you that your years
Would backward run, till they meet mine,
That perfect Likeness, which endears
Things unto things, might us Combine?
Our ages so in date agree,
That Twins do differ more than we.
There are two Births, the one when Light
First strikes the new awak’ned sense;
The Other when two Souls unite;
And we must count our life from thence:
When you lov’d me, and I lov’d you,
Then both of us were born anew.
Love then to us did new Souls give,
And in those Souls did plant new pow’rs;
Since when another life we live,
The Breath we breathe is his, not ours;
Love makes those young, whom Age doth Chill,
And whom he finds young, keeps young still.
Love, like that Angell that shall call
Our bodies from the silent Grave,
Unto one Age doth raise us all,
None too much, none too little have
Nay that the difference may be none,
He makes two not alike, but One.
And now since you and I are such,
Tell me what’s yours, and what is mine?
Our Eyes, our Ears, our Taste, Smell, Touch,
Do (like our Souls) in one Combine;
So by this, I as well may be
Too old for you, as you for me.
William Cartwright’s poem replies to a wish expressed by a female friend, that she might be younger so that she should suit him better. Since Cartwright never married before he died of typhus aged 31, and there is no record of a Chloe in his biography, it seems likely that Chloe was imaginary. The name Chloe means “blooming” or “fertility” in Greek, so it’s possible that the name was chosen to symbolise a mature woman.
In 1918, R. Cullis Coffin edited “The Life and Poems of William Cartwright”, a biography and collection of Cartwright’s poems. Coffin’s book includes another poem that praises Chloe: “No Drawing of Valentines”, so if she was a real person, Cartwright was evidently much affected by her.
In the first stanza, his narrator asks Chloe why she should wish time to run backward until she reaches his age, as if being the same age was the key to perfect love. He says that since they share the same birthday, they are already closer than twins.
In the second stanza, he asserts that we are born twice: the first time we see daylight “when Light/First strikes the new awak’ned sense” and the second time “when two Souls unite”. They should therefore count their years from the moment “When you lov’d me, and I lov’d you”.
The third stanza explains that in that moment, their souls were renewed by Love who “in those Souls did plant new pow’rs”. As Love brings new life, that life belongs to Love, which has the power to make youthful those who are old, and to preserve youth in those “whom he finds young”.
The fourth stanza likens Love to the angel that shall summon the resurrected on Judgment Day—since everyone will be reborn on the same day, they will be the same age thereafter. Love, though, goes further—we are not just made alike, we are made One.
The fifth stanza concludes with the thought that since he and Chloe are united, there is no division between “what’s yours, and what is mine”—their senses, like their souls, are combined in one, and so it is as true to say that he is too old for her as it is to say that she is too old for him.
I like this poem because it expresses very clearly the feeling of unity and the irrelevance of age differences when we love another person. I like the idea that love brings a rebirth, and the lines “Love makes those young, whom Age doth Chill,/And whom he finds young, keeps young still” sound like they came direct from Shakespeare’s pen. They remind us that we may find love at any age, and it is never too late.
The poem is often presented in an abbreviated form consisting of the second and third stanzas, and I have been unable to find a performance of the full poem online—the closest is a performance of the second stanza by Phoenix Feathers on the Poetry Pixie YouTube channel.