Richard Lovelace was an English poet and playwright during the Renaissance period and a notable figure involved with the Royal military and petitions regarding the Church of England which led to his imprisonment.
The Grasshopper is a poem Richard Lovelace dedicated to his friend and colleague Mr. Charles Cotton. The poem has ten quatrain stanzas with alternate rhyme. It could be seen as alluding to the Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper - a story of a lazy and irresponsible grasshopper who spends entire summer enjoying himself while the hardworking ant prepares itself for winter-essentially a fable with a message of responsibility and thinking of the future rather than only enjoying the moment.
The first five stanzas are describing the grasshopper's joyful summer up until the cold of winter comes. The other five stanzas could be seen as the poet addressing his friend to whom he dedicated this poem and talks about their hardship of having the entire world at their disposal to talk about, but being poor in the knowledge of oneself.
Allusions to Greek and Roman figures, questioning the notion of oneself and one's place in the world are all elements of Renaissance literature to which Lovelace's work belongs to.
