To Lucasta, Going to the Warres

To Lucasta, Going to the Warres is a 1649 poem by Richard Lovelace. It was published in the collection Lucasta by Lovelace of that year. The initial poems were addressed to Lucasta, not clearly identified with any real-life woman, under the titles Going beyond the Seas and Going to the Warres, on a chivalrous note.[1]

Text

Tell me not (Sweet) I am unkinde,
That from the Nunnerie
Of thy chaste breast, and quiet minde,
To Warre and Armes I flie.

True; a new Mistresse now I serve,
The first Foe in the Field;
And with a sterner Faith embrace
A Sword, a Horse, a Shield.

Yet this Inconstancy is such,
As thou too shalt adore;
I could not love thee (Deare) so much,
Lov'd I not Honour more.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Anselment, Raymond A., "Lovelace, Richard", on the website of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Subscription or UK public library membership required), http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/17056