The ten stanzas which comprise “The Grasshopper” are essentially split into two distinct sections though the poet himself did not choose to mark this division; indeed, the stanzas are not number numbered at all. Nevertheless, divide clearly indicated by the content.
The first five stanzas are devoted to an image and symbol-laden description of the grasshopper. The grasshopper’s life is described as one of short-lived joy that—in keeping with the previous fables about it not preparing for the ravages of winter like the ant—marks its life according to rising and setting of the sun each day. Where these five descriptive stanzas of the grasshopper enjoying a life of leisure and good company differs substantially from the fable is the lack of moralizing directed toward the insect. The poet does not fault the grasshopper for not taking a long-term approach to living through the cruel fate winter has in store, but rather seems to celebrate its choice by insisting that merry-making makes one merry. Only in the fifth stanza which concludes this section is the moral of the fable introduced and, notably, it is not directed toward a condemnation of the grasshopper but rather exists only as a lesson to humans to take note of how to survive a wintry season.
The sixth stanza initiates the change of focus away from the grasshopper and toward how the poet (and presumably his friend Charles Cotton mentioned in the poem’s subtitle) are dealing with the wintry season by forcing through will the creation of a summer within the other. They have agreed to keep the fires burning throughout. The winter season here described is symbolic and this subtext is indicated through a series of classical allusions and figurative references. A literal mention of making it through December, for instance, ends with a reference to an unidentified “he” wearing his crown again. The symbolic winter that must be survived is the British historical period often referred to as the Puritan Revolution during as the Interregnum. The harsh, rigid and strict morality of Puritanism ended traditional Christmas celebrations as well as marked the period when England was ruled without a King.
Lovelace belongs to a group known as the Cavalier Poets, which enjoyed their heyday as favored members of the court of King Charles, and thus the reference alludes both to a return of Christmas celebration and the restoration of the monarchy. The second half of the poem thus becomes the lesson learned from the grasshopper: surviving the harsh winter season of Puritan imposition of law requires not collecting material surplus as protection against the ravages, but enjoying the fruits of a luxurious inherited lifestyle which already affords such protection. Under such conditions, the real protection against the winter can be acted out: feasting on the fruits of unrepressed Cavalier culture which they have already collected as a means of fending off the Puritan threat of intellectual starvation.
