Richard Lovelace - Literature

Literature

Richard Lovelace first started writing while he was a student at Oxford and wrote almost 200 poems from that time until his death. His first work was a drama titled The Scholars. The play was never published; however, it was performed at college and then in London. In 1640, he wrote a tragedy titled The Soldier which was based on his own military experience. When serving in the Bishops' Wars, he wrote the sonnet "To Generall Goring," which is a poem of Bacchanalian celebration rather than a glorification of military action. One of his extremely famous poems is "To Lucasta, Going to the Warres," written in 1640 and exposed in his first political action. During his first imprisonment in 1642, he wrote his most famous poem "To Althea, From Prison." Later on that year during his travels to Holland with General Goring, he wrote "The Rose," following with "The Scrutiny" and on 14 May 1649, "Lucasta" was published. He also wrote poems analyzing the details of many simple insects. "The Ant," 'The Grasse-hopper," "The Snayl," "The Falcon," "The Toad and Spyder." Of these poems, "The Grasse-hopper" is his most well-known. In 1660, after Lovelace died, "Lucasta: Postume Poems" was published; it contains "A Mock-Song," which has a much darker tone than his previous works.

William Winstanley, who praised much of Richard Lovelace's works, thought highly of him and compared him to an idol; "I can compare no Man so like this Colonel Lovelace as Sir Philip Sidney,” of which it is in an Epitaph made of him;

Nor is it fit that more I should aquaint

Lest Men adore in one

A Scholar, Souldier, Lover, and a Saint

His most quoted excerpts are from the beginning of the last stanza of "To Althea, From Prison":

Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an hermitage

and the end of "To Lucasta. Going to the Warres":

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Lov'd I not Honour more.