author
Richard Lovelace
1618–1658
A Cavalier poet of love, loyalty, and war, he is best remembered for the ringing lyric "To Althea, from Prison" and the famous line about finding "stone walls" no prison. His life moved from courtly promise to prison, military service, and hardship, giving his poems an unusual mix of grace and defiance.
1 Audiobook
Lucasta
by Richard Lovelace
About the author
Born in Woolwich in either late 1617 or 1618, he came from a Kentish family with strong military ties and was educated at Charterhouse and later at Oxford. He became known as one of the Cavalier poets, writers linked to the court of Charles I whose verse often joined elegance, wit, love, and loyalty.
His life was deeply shaped by the English Civil War. A committed Royalist, he supported the king, was imprisoned for presenting a petition on behalf of fellow loyalists, and later served in the conflict. Some of his best-known poems, including To Althea, from Prison and To Lucasta, Going to the Warres, draw their energy from that mix of personal feeling and political conviction.
Although later legend painted him as the ideal courtly soldier-poet, his final years seem to have been much harder, and sources agree that he died in poverty in London in 1657. His reputation endured because of the musical ease of his lyrics and the memorable way they turn private emotion into something bold and public.