To+Althea,+From+Prison

To Althea, From Prison by Richard Lovelace  

When Love with unconfinèd wings Hovers within my gates, And my divine Althea bring To whisper at my grates; When I lie tangled in her hair And fetter'd to her eye, The gods that wanton in the air Know no such liberty. When flowing cups pass swiftly round With no allaying Thames, Our careless heads with roses bound, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Our hearts with loyal flames; <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">When thirsty grief in wine we steep, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">When healths and draughts go free— <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Fishes that tipple in the deep <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Know no such liberty. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">When, like committed linnets, I <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">With shriller throat shall sing <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">The sweetness mercy, majesty, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">And glories of my King; <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">When I shall voice aloud how good <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">He is, how great should be, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Enlargèd winds, that curl the flood, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Know no such liberty. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Stone walls do not a prison make, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Nor iron bars a cage; <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Minds innocent and quiet take <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">That for an hermitage; <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">If I have freedom in my love <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">And in my soul am free, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Angels alone, that soar above, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Enjoy such liberty.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The speaker is in a prison and is imagining Love bringing his beloved Althea to him on "unconfined" wings. He imagines hearing her voice and touching her skin but unfortunately it is all in his head. The speaker then talks about attending a celebration where they drink from cups that have been watered down with water from the river Thames. They wear roses on their heads and have hearts filled with passion. Then the speaker is once again talking about being in prison where he will sing praises to the king (King Charles I) from his confinement. He then finishes off by saying that no physical structure can keep him confined, because he has love and love is freedom.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Summary: **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Stanza 1:__ The speaker is imagining a physical embodiment of love bringing his beloved Althea to him. He sees himself touching her and hearing her voice. While this is all in his head, simply imagining his love for Althea keeps him sane while he is in prison and that his love for her is his freedom. He even compares to his love and freedom that he feels with that love to the gods in the air and that they will never experience freedom such as he does. This is powerful because gods are considered higher than man and the fact that the speaker feels that he is freer than the gods shows just how powerful love can be.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Analysis: **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Stanza 2:__ The speaker is talking about attending some sort of celebration with other people. The reader can assume that the other people are others that are in the same prison as the speaker. They drink wine that has been watered down by the river Thames to which they drink away their sorrows about being stuck in prison. Because even though they are in prison they celebrate that they are not dead. The line "our hearts with loyal flames" (line 12) is an allusion to Charles I what was king during the time of the poem. The reader can guess that the prisoners are prisoners of war and are still loyal to their king. The speaker ends with saying that fish in the deep won't know the liberty. This is once again telling the reader that even though the speaker is in jail, these other beings (gods in stanza 1) the speaker is freer than all these other creatures.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Stanza 3:__ The speaker once again talks about being locked away in a prison by comparing himself to "committed linnets" (line 17) which are caged finches. However, the speaker is comparing himself to the bird because even though a bird is stuck in a cage does not stop its voice. The speaker is saying that even though he is in prison it will not stop him from singing praises to his king. The end of the poem uses and inanimate object, the wind, as showing that the speaker is freer than the wind. The wind that has no limitations or boundaries is not as free as the speaker.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Stanza 4:__ This stanza is a little different than the others because he is not speaking hypothetically but rather about the prison and freedom itself. He describes the prison and that even though he is physically in a prison the prison is not a prison to him. He sees it this way because he says he has "freedom in my love" (line 29) which means that as long as he has love, nothing, not a prison or cage can keep him from being free. The stanza also ends differently than the previous stanzas because the previous stanzas shows things that would never experience freedom like he does while this stanza tells that the only thing that can experience true freedom like he does are angels.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"To Althea, From Prison" consists of four octaves. The rhythm of the poem is unique because the odd lines are written in iambic tetrameter and the even lines are in iambic trimeter. This just simply means that the odd lines have four beats of measure while the even lines have three.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Form: **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Freedom:__ Freedom is a huge theme seen in "To Althea, From Prison." The speaker is in a prison but he does not let than bring him down. He uses his imagination to imagine being with his love, Althea, which, metaphorically, sets him free. The speaker is free, just the same as anyone else, even though he is in a prison. The speaker understands that it does not matter where you are, freedom is entirely mental. A person can be physically free but mentally confined. The speaker is physically confined but free mentally and that makes him freer than almost anyone else. When he talks about liberty, he is also talking about freedom. Every stanza of the poem ends in "know such liberty" except for the last stanza which ends in "enjoy such liberty." He talks about liberty saying that other creatures will never know the liberty of being "free" in the sense that the speaker is. The speaker states in the last stanza that the only other beings that can understand the freedom as he does are the "Angels alone that soar above." Freedom is by far the most prominent theme seen in the poem.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Themes: **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Love:__ The other main theme in the poem is love. Obviously the most obvious form of love is the love the speaker has for Althea. His love for Althea is his only form of freedom while he is in prison. The very first sentence of the poem says "When Love with unconfined wings/Hovers within my gates" (line 1) so he is imagining love as an actual object that will bring the speaker Althea. But other forms of love are mentioned in the poem. The speaker talks about his love for his king by singing him praises and "glories for my king" (line 20). Love is very similar to the theme of freedom because for the speaker, love is his freedom.

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 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Listen to the poem: **