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Richard Lovelace Research Paper

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“A poet is before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language,” W.H. Auden. Richard Lovelace was a prominent English poet with many renowned pieces including To Althea, From Prison, To Lucasta, and Going to Wars. Wether his works were inspired by other poets, politics, or great love he was and is still known to be one of the greats. Richard Lovelace was born into a wealthy family in 1618 in Woolwich. He was the eldest of four brothers and three sisters. His brother, Francis Lovelace, was a defender of Caermarthen in 1644 on the side of King Charles I. His father was Sir William Lovelace who was born into a traditional military family who owned a chunk of land in Kent. His father also inherited two manors from his father’s …show more content…

Lovelace more than willingly joined Lord Goring and worked his way up the ranks to become captain at the Bishop Wars. This was just the beginning to a long journey through his political trouble. In 1641 he led a group of men to destroy a petition that was greatly valued since nearly 15,000 people signed it. He took a great part in trying to suppress Scotts by presenting a Royalist petition to Parliament (this support of the Royalists eventually financially drained him) and was then imprisoned in Westminster Gatehouse for six weeks where he completed “To Althea, From Prison”. After he was released on bail under the circumstance that he did not get near the House of Commons without permission, he of course returned to his ways of supporting Royalists and fought at the battle of Dunkirk where he was captured and imprisoned once again. He also was a part of the political turmoil in 1648. After his last imprisonment sentence in 1649 the news was broken that the king was executed. His support for the Royalists was now a lost cause and despite his greatest efforts to support them he was financially drained by that support and he lived off of charity and died as a broke

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