Text of the Poem

I

WHEN Love with unconfined wings
    Hovers within my Gates;
And my divine Althea brings
    To whisper at the Grates;
When I lye tangled in her haire
    And fettered to her eye;
The Gods that wanton in the Aire,
    Know no such Liberty. 

II

When flowing Cups run swiftly round
    With no allaying Thames,
Our carelesse heads with Roses bound,
    Our hearts with Loyall Flames;
When thirsty griefe in Wine we steepe,
    When Healths and draughts go free,
Fishes that tipple in the Deepe,
    Know no such Libertie. 

III

When (like committed linnets) I
    With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, Mercy, Majesty,
    And glories of my KING;
When I shall voyce aloud, how Good
    He is, how Great should be;
Enlarged Winds that curle the Flood,
    Know no such Liberty. 

IV

Stone Walls do 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,
    Injoy such Liberty.

Footnotes

  1. Linnets are a type of bird.

    — Allegra Keys, Owl Eyes Editor

  2. This metaphor suggests that the speaker and his friends were passionate about the same things.

    — Allegra Keys, Owl Eyes Editor

  3. This locates the speaker in London.

    — Allegra Keys, Owl Eyes Editor

  4. Even though the speaker is meeting his lover behind bars and they are confined to his prison cell, he feels freedom in his love’s embrace. This is one example of the paradoxical imagery that is regularly used throughout the poem.

    — Allegra Keys, Owl Eyes Editor

  5. Althea is a Greek girl name that means “healer”, but it is also very similar to the Greek word for “truth.” This poem is about Richard Lovelace’s imprisonment in 1642, subsequently it is also about his truth in and out of prison.

    — Allegra Keys, Owl Eyes Editor

  6. This line uses the poetic device of personification for the word "love.”

    — Allegra Keys, Owl Eyes Editor