Named source · 1649

To Althea, from Prison Quotes by Richard Lovelace: Context & Meanings

1 quotation linked to To Althea, from Prison by or associated with Richard Lovelace, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

More by Richard Lovelace

Read the source

Open a public or archival text connected with these quotations

Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.

Primary / edition source · gutenberg.org ↗

Represented passages

1 quotations with source context and meaning

Source identified1

Stone walls doe not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage;

Image design Midnight

Read & copy

“Stone walls doe not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage;”

Richard Lovelace

Meaning & context

Lovelace’s imprisoned speaker claims that external confinement cannot fully control a mind and inner life that still experience loyalty, love and spiritual freedom.

Source details

“To Althea, from Prison,” in Lucasta, Project Gutenberg #703. The poem was written in the context of Lovelace’s imprisonment and expresses Cavalier political and personal loyalty; its claim about freedom is poetic rather than a denial of the real harms of incarceration.

Open a public or archival text connected with these quotations

Prominent ideas connected with the quotations represented here

1 quotations with source context and meaning

Continue through other sources by Richard Lovelace