Richard Lovelace - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Richard Lovelace was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

in the seventeenth century. He was a cavalier poet

Cavalier poet

Cavalier poets is a broad description of a school of English poets of the 17th century, who came from the classes that supported King Charles I during the English Civil War. Much of their poetry is light in style, and generally secular in subject...

who fought on behalf of the king during the Civil war. His best known works are To Althea, from Prison

To Althea, from Prison

To Althea, from Prison is a romantic poem written by Richard Lovelace in 1642. The poem is one of Lovelace's best known works, and its final stanza's first line is often quoted. Lovelace wrote the poem while imprisoned in Gatehouse Prison for petitioning to have the Clergy Act 1640...

, and To Lucasta, Going to the Warres

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...

.
Richard Lovelace was born in 1618. His exact birthplace is unknown, but it is documented that it was either Woolwich

Woolwich

Woolwich is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, or Holland. He was the oldest son of Sir William Lovelace and Anne Barne Lovelace and had four brothers and three sisters.