Richard+Lovelace

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CP Brit Poetry

Background:

 * Born in Woolrich
 * was a perfect cavalier
 * born into a military family and educated at Oxford
 * granted a Master's Degree on the spot by the Royal Family
 * Fought for the monarchy in the civil war
 * imprisoned twice, once for petitioning parliament in the king's favor and another time for an uprising against the legislative body
 * popular poems during his lifetime
 * Was badly wounded in 1646 while fighting the Spanish in France

Works:

 * [|Song to Amarantha, that she would Dishevel her Hair]
 * [|The Grasshopper]
 * [|The Scrutinie]

[|To Lucasta, Going to the War]
media type="file" key="RichardLoveLace.m4a" width="300" height="50" Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind That from the nunnery Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind, To war and arms I fly.

True, a new mistress now I chase, The first foe in the field; And with a stronger faith embrace 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.

Discussion Questions: 1) What is the man leaving his love for? 2) Why is it especially approproate for the speaker to talk about flying to arms? 3) What is the "stronger faith" the speaker mentions in this line?

[|To Althea, From Prison]
media type="file" key="To Athea From Prison.m4a" width="300" height="50" When Love with unconfined wings Hovers within my gates, And my divine Althea brings To whisper at the grates; When I live tangled in her hair And fetter'd to her eye, The birds that wanton in the air Know no such liberty.

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.

When, like committed linnets, I With shriller throat shall sing The sweetness, mercy, majesty, And glories of my King; When I shall voice aloud how good, He ism how great should be, Enlarged winds, that curl the flood, Know no such liberty.

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.

Discussion Questions: 1) What liberty is the author talking about at the end of each paragraph? 2) What is the actual prison and bars which the author is speaking of?

A Fly Caught In A Cobweb
media type="custom" key="18031356"

 Small type of great ones, that do hum

 Within this whole world's narrow room,

 That with a busie hollow noise

 Catch at the people's vainer voice,

 And with spread sails play with their breath,

 Whose very hails new christen death.

 Poor Fly, caught in an airy net,

 Thy wings have fetter'd now thy feet;

 Where, like a Lyon in a toyl,

 Howere thou keep'st a noble coyl,

 And beat'st thy gen'rous breast, that o're

 The plains thy fatal buzzes rore,

 Till thy all-bellyd foe (round elf)

 Hath quarter'd thee within hiself.

 Was it not better once to play

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> I' th' light of a majestick ray,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Where, though too neer and bold, the fire

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Might sindge thy upper down attire,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> And thou i' th' storm to loose an eye.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> A wing, or a self-trapping thigh:

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Yet hadst thou fal'n like him, whose coil

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Made fishes in the sea to broyl,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> When now th'ast scap'd the noble flame;

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Trapp'd basely in a slimy frame,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> And __free__ of air, thou art become

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Slave to the spawn of mud and loe?

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Nor is't enough thy self do's dresse

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> To thy swoln lord a num'rous messe,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> And by __degrees__ thy thin veins bleed,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> And piecemeal dost his poyson feed;

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> But now devour'd, art like to be

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> A net spun for thy familie,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> And, straight expanded in the air,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Hang'st for thy issue too a snare.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Strange witty death and cruel ill

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> That, killing thee, thou thine dost kill!

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Like pies, in whose entombed ark

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> All fowl crowd downward to a lark,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Thou art thine en'mies' sepulcher,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> And in thee buriest, too, thine heir.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Yet Fates a glory have reserv'd

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> For one so highly hath deserv'd.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> As the rhinoceros doth dy

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Under his castle-enemy,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> As through the cranes trunk throat doth speed,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> The aspe doth on his feeder feed;

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Fall yet triumphant in thy woe,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.167em;"> Bound with the entrails of thy foe.

Discussion Questions

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">__#1 Why is this poem named, "A Fly Caught In A Cobweb?"__

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 21px;">__ #2 What do the fly and the spider symbolize? __

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">__ #3 Which one is victorious in this battle? __

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">__#4 What does this victory symbolize?__