
Richard Lovelace.
Richard Lovelace (9 December 1618 – 1657) was an English poet and nobleman, born in Woolwich, Kent, today part of southeast London. He was one of the Cavalier poets, and a noted royalist.
Quotes
To Althea: From Prison (1642)
- When flowing cups run swiftly round,
With no allaying Thames,
Our careless heads with roses bound,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes that tipple in the deep
Know no such liberty.- 1642, quoted in English Literature And Its Background, p. 407
- Stone walls doe not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Mindes innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedome in my love,
And in my soule am free,
Angels alone that sore above
Enjoy such liberty.- 1642, quoted in English Literature And Its Background, p. 407
- Love, then unstinted, Love did sip,
And cherries plucked fresh from the lip;
On cheeks and roses free he fed;
Lasses like autumn plums did drop,
And lads indifferently did crop
A flower and a maidenhead.- Love Made in the First Age: To Chloris (l. 13–18).
The Grasshopper (1647)
Lucasta (1649)
To Lucasta, Going to the Wars
- TELL me not Sweet I am unkind,
That from the Nunnery
Of thy chaste breast, and quiet mind,
To War and Armes I fly.
True; a new Mistresse now I chase
The first Foe in the Field
And with a stronger Faith imbrace
A Sword, a Horse, a Shield.
*Yet this Inconstancy is such,
As you too shall adore
I could not love thee Dear so much,
Loved I not honor more.- Quoted in English Literature And Its Background, p. 407
- If to be absent were to be
Away from thee;
Or that when I am gone,
You and I were alone;
Then, my Lucasta, might I crave
Pity from blust'ring wind, or swallowing wave.
- Though Seas and Land betwixt us both,
Our Faith and Troth,
Like separated soules,
All time and space controules:
Above the highest sphere wee meet
Unseene, unknowne, and greet as Angels greet.- To Lucasta: Going Beyond the Seas, st. 3.
- Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind,
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind,
To war and arms I fly.- To Lucasta: Going to the Wars, st. 1.
- Yet this inconstancy is such
As you too shall adore;
I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not honor more.- To Lucasta: Going to the Wars, st. 3.
- Here we’ll strip and cool our fire
In cream below, in milk-baths higher;
And when all wells are drawn dry,
I’ll drink a tear out of thine eye.- To Amarantha, That She Would Dishevel Her Hair (l. 21–24).
- Then, if when I have lov’d my round,
Thou prov’st the pleasant she,
With spoils of meaner beauties crown’d
I laden will return to thee,
Ev’n sated with variety.- The Scrutiny, st. 4.
- Oh, could you view the melody
Of every grace
And music of her face,
You'd drop a tear;
Seeing more harmony
In her bright eye
Than now you hear.- Orpheus to Beasts. Compare: "There is music in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument; for there is music wherever there is harmony, order, or proportion; and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres", Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Part ii, Section ix; "The mind, the music breathing from her face", Lord Byron, Bride of Abydos (1813), canto i, stanza 6.
- When I lie tangled in her hair,
And fettered to her eye,
The gods that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty.- To Althea: From Prison, st. 1.
- When flowing cups pass swiftly round
With no allaying Thames.- To Althea: From Prison, st. 2. Compare: "A cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in 't", William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act ii, Scene 1.
- Fishes that tipple in the deep,
Know no such liberty.- To Althea: From Prison, st. 2.
- Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.- To Althea: From Prison, st. 4.
- Then Love, I beg, when next thou takest thy bow,
Thy angry shafts, and dost heart-chasing go,
Pass rascal deer, strike me the largest doe.- La Bella Bona Roba (l. 13–15).
External links
- Works by Richard Lovelace at Project Gutenberg
- Bernard D. N. Grebanier: English Literature And Its Background, The Dryden Press, New York, United States, May 1948
This article is issued from Wikiquote. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.