To Althea, From Prison Cavalier poetry

The Cavalier poets were a loose group of seventeenth-century British writers who shared certain qualities in common. Poets like Thomas Carew, Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, and John Suckling wrote poetry that was witty and sophisticated. Rather than write in a transparent, natural way, their poetry was based on artifice and stylization. Their poetry was strongly inspired by Greek and Roman poets like Anacreon and Horace. Some of their poems were pastoral and focused on everyday themes from rural life. They often focused on women, drinking, and worldly pleasures. At the same time, they had a strong emphasis on chivalry, honor, and war. This combination makes sense when we realize that these poets were mostly courtiers. In other words, they were part of the royal court and often had access to the king and queen. Thus, they were fond of wealth and pleasure while also writing for and about the monarchy. The poetry often had political themes, whether praising the ruler or giving him advice. These poets were sometimes called the “Tribe of Ben” because they were inspired by the satirist Ben Jonson, who was also conservative and strongly pro-monarchy. Carew, Lovelace, and Sucking all mobilized on behalf of the royal cause and took up arms around the time of the English Civil War. Thus, to be a “Cavalier” was also a political position. During the war, Royalist parts of the country were controlled by something called the Cavalier faction, whereas parts of the country in support of Parliament were controlled by a group called the Roundheads. Though the Parliamentarians who were strongly Puritan used the word “Cavalier” as an insult to describe this group’s dissolute lifestyle of alcohol and women, these poets used the title as a badge of pride. The later poet Alexander Pope described the Cavalier poets as "the mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease.”