Richard Lovelace. 1618–1658



TELL me not, Sweet, I am unkind,
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind
To war and arms I fly.

True, a new mistress now I chase, 5
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such
As thou too shalt adore; 10
I could not love thee, Dear, so much,
Loved I not Honor more.

Analysis:
The poem is about the universal.
The type of poem is Lyric
Literary Theme: It's about a choice between love and duty.
It's paradoxical. It seems that the soldier is choosing his duty to his country and leaving his love for the sake of his country. But he is deeply in love with his beloved that for the sake of his love, he prefer to lose his life to keep his love's home safe.
In this poem we have 3 stanzas.
The first stanza:
The soldier is talking to his wife. He says that he 's not unkind if he leaves his wife for the sake of his duty to his country.
The second stanza:
Mistress: metaphor for "foe". The sentence in lines 5-6 is a verbal irony. Because the mistress can not be a foe. The whole stanza is a paradox because the soldier is leaving his wife not to go to another mistress, but for the sake of his beloved's homeland and his own.
The last stanza:It's the theme of the poem and the soldier said if he didn't love his home country (land) , he wouldn't love his love, as well.
There's a contradiction between love for his beloved and love of his country which is his "honor" . He loves his wife first, and his country then.