“To Althea, from Prison” is a poem by the English poet Richard Lovelace. It is about the poet’s experience in prison for his support of King Charles I. This occurred at a time in England when pro-royalty and pro-parliament factions were in conflict. While the legend of the poem is that it was written while Lovelace was being held in Westminster Gatehouse Prison in London in the spring of 1642, scholars have found no solid evidence that he wrote the poem there. The poem was included in his first published collection of poetry Lucasta in 1649.
The poem describes Lovelace’s thoughts and emotions while in prison for his support of the monarchy. He claims that though his body is imprisoned, his spirit is free. This argument is clear in the poem's most often quoted lines: “Stone walls do not a prison make, / Nor iron bars a cage.” He contrasts the walls and bars of his cell with the freedom of his soul, which he compares to birds, fish, winds, and angels. He also describes his love for a woman named Althea, which some scholars argue is a pseudonym for Lovelace’s fiancée Lucy Sacheverell. The poem contains four stanzas of eight lines each. It alternates between longer and shorter lines with a consistent rhyme scheme like a ballad. The poem was put to music after Lovelace’s death. The song version was famously covered by the English band Fairport Convention in 1973.
“To Althea, from Prison” is an example of Cavalier poetry, a movement of mostly pro-monarchy poets in the seventeenth century who wrote in a refined and witty style about love, drinking, war, and chivalry. Other Cavalier poets include Thomas Carew, Robert Herrick, and John Suckling. The poem combines two well-known genres from the seventeenth century: prison poems and drinking poems. Other Royalist (or pro-king) writers in the period who wrote about their experience in jail include William Cartwright, Abraham Cowley, William Davenant, Thomas Weaver, and Francis Wortley.
