<p> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Simsun; line-height: normal; font-size: medium; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size="+2">To Althea, From Prison</font></font></b> </span></p><center><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size="-1">By Richard Lovelace</font></font></center><hr width="100%">
Text of the Poem | Summaries and Notes |
When Love with unconfinèd wings | Although in prison, the poet is freer than the birds that fly about at |
Hovers within my gates, | will. Why? Because his mind is free. He can imagine his love, |
And my divine Althea brings | Althea, so close to him that he becomes tangled in her hair and |
To whisper at the grates; | their gazes meet when they are only inches apart. |
When I lie tangled in her hair | è: The grave accent over the e indicates that the letter receives |
And fetter'd to her eye, | full pronunciation: UN kon FY ned |
The birds that wanton in the air | within my gates: inside the prison; grates: bars, grill |
Know no such liberty. | wanton: fly freely and aimlessly |
When flowing cups run swiftly round | Fishes have a whole ocean from which to drink. But they are less |
With no allaying Thames, | free to drink than I am here in prison. My imagination makes |
Our careless heads with roses bound, | bottomless cups flow with wine–without water from the River |
Our hearts with loyal flames; | Thames to dilute it–as I and my friends wear rosy wreaths and |
When thirsty grief in wine we steep, | toast the king. We may mourn the loss of our rights, but still there |
When healths and draughts go free– | are toasts (healths) and draughts (the taking in of wine). |
Fishes that tipple in the deep | loyal flames: support for the king |
Know no such liberty. | |
When, like committed linnets, I | Though I am in prison, I am free to sing the praises of my king. |
With shriller throat shall sing | No wind, however strong, can make as great a sound as I can |
The sweetness, mercy, majesty, | when I sing the glories of my monarch. |
And glories of my King; | committed linnets: caged birds that include canaries and |
When I shall voice aloud how good | sparrows |
He is, how great should be, | |
Enlargèd winds, that curl the flood, | |
Know no such liberty. | |
Stone walls do not a prison make, | The walls and iron bars that surround me cannot imprison me, |
Nor iron bars a cage; | for my mind remains free. Because I am innocent of wrongdoing, |
Minds innocent and quiet take | I regard prison as a hermitage, a retreat where I can concentrate |
That for an hermitage; | on what matters to me–my love for Althea and the principles by |
If I have freedom in my love | which I live. Only angels have as much freedom as I do. |
And in my soul am free, | |
Angels alone, that soar above, | |
Enjoy such liberty. |