Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Richard Lovelace. 16181658348. To Althea, from Prison
WHEN Love with unconfinèd wings | |
Hovers within my gates, | |
And my divine Althea brings | |
To whisper at the grates; | |
When I lie tangled in her hair | 5 |
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, | 10 |
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 | 15 |
Know no such liberty. | |
When, like committed linnets, I | |
With shriller throat shall sing | |
The sweetness, mercy, majesty, | |
And glories of my King; | 20 |
When I shall voice aloud how good | |
He is, how great should be, | |
Enlargèd winds, that curl the flood, | |
Know no such liberty. | |
Stone walls do not a prison make, | 25 |
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, | 30 |
Angels alone, that soar above, | |
Enjoy such liberty. |