Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
The most famous lines of verse that Lovelace ever wrote just so happen to be among the most famous lines of poetry ever written. The quotes encapsulates the entire theme of the poem which is that no jail ever built can imprison a mind and spirit determined to remain free. Brick and metal are not what make a man a true prisoner, in other words, it is the surrendering of his humanity to his captors.
I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not honor more.
This entire poem is bound up in the concept of honor and, in turn, honor was inextricably linked to the Cavalier Poets, of which Lovelace is a member. When trying to get a handle on the Cavaliers, consider them not as poets, but as, say, a swordsman like Robin Hood or Inigo Montoya. For those heroes, honor was everything; Robin Hood maintained loyal to the absent King Richard while he the evil King John assumed control; Inigo Montoya spends half his life looking to avenge the honor of his beloved father. The Cavalier poets were utterly devoted to their king and both lived and wrote according to a code of honor which perhaps one might disagree with, but one is hard pressed to fault them on their fidelity. The unknown woman here addressed as Lucasta would recognize this duty to honor and the code which bound the speaker to it. And he is trusting that she understands that that honor to his king is intimately connected to his ability to love her with a full sense of passion second only to that love for king and country.
Have I not loved thee much and long,
A tedious twelve hours' space?
I must all other beauties wrong,
And rob thee of a new embrace,
Could I still dote upon thy face.
The conventional view toward this poem by many is that it is written in sincere imitation of John Donne and his fellow travelers in the art of love ‘em and leave ‘em. Such an interpretation seems notably out of sync with the almost extreme focus on honor in those poems addressed to Althea and Lucasta. Surely, it must be admitted that there is no irrefutable evidence to definitively situate the lines quoted above as an expression of sincerity. While it is absolutely within reason to interpret them so, one might well argue just as effectively that the speaker is being ironic and that the poem is more parody than imitation.
Small type of great ones, that do hum
Within this whole world's narrow room,
The title is misleading, especially to modern readers. While Lovelace’s reputation is that he is an observer of the small world around us, he is not really just writing about fly and spider web. Of course, this being poetry, it would be natural to expect the poem has a great symbolic meaning. In fact, the poem has smaller symbolic meaning; it is a very precise and intensely focused allegory about the political climate of the day when the Puritan rebellion against the King would result in the Civil War. The fly in this case is an allegorical symbol for aristocrats looking out for their own self-interest and rejecting the honor and loyalty associated with the Cavaliers. Thus the “small types” of “great ones” is not a reference to size, but character and class; the fly is a represent of the aristocratic class who has small-mindedly decided to cast his lot against the King.
