Weekend Quote #8

“Stone walls doe not a prison make,

  Nor iron bars a cage;

Mindes innocent and quiet take

  That for an hermitage;

If I have freedome in my love,

  And in my soule am free,

Angels alone that sore above

  Enjoy such liberty.”

- Richard Lovelace

This week I take something different. It's taken from Lovelace's To Althea from Prison. I read this from Rafael Sabatini's novel Captain Blood, though in simplified version. Charmed by the verse, I looked for the complete poem and read it.

Lovelace wrote this poem in prison. The poet was one of the cavalier poets, who supported Charles I. (I really didn't know about this before I chose it to be my weekend quote. Any similarity between his ideology and Athos' is not intended). In his poem, he argues that he is still free, because in his mind he does nothing wrong. He is still free to be loyal to Charles I, he is still free to think and to love anyone he wants.

I like this poem because I also believe in that kind of freedom, a freedom that cannot be deprived from anyone – the freedom of heart and the freedom of mind. People can always control others' bodies, acts, and deeds. But no matter how strict they control those things, the heart and the mind will always be free.

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