To Lucasta, Going to the Warres

"To Lucasta, Going to the Warres" is a 1649 poem by Richard Lovelace. It was published in the collection Lucasta by Lovelace of that year. The initial poems were addressed to Lucasta, not clearly identified with any real-life woman, under the titles "Going beyond the Seas" and "Going to the Warres", on a chivalrous note.[1]

Text

Tell me not, (sweet,) I am unkinde,
  That from the nunnerie
Of thy chaste breast and quiet minde
  To warre and armes I flie.

True: a new Mistresse now I chase,
  The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith imbrace
  A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such,
  As you too shall adore;
I could not love thee, dear, so much,
  Lov'd I not Honour more.[2]

See also

• To Althea, from Prison
• 1640 in poetry, the year Lucasta was written
• 1649 in poetry, the year the poem was published

Notes

1. Anselment, Raymond A. "Lovelace, Richard". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17056. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. Lovelace, Richard (1921). Lucasta; poems with an introductory note by William Lyon Phelps. 1. Chicago: Caxton Club. p. 29.