The Scrutiny by Richard Lovelace (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes
The Scrutiny by Richard Lovelace
Introduction
'The Scrutiny' is a witty and playful poem by Richard Lovelace that presents a speaker's justification for breaking his promise of fidelity to a woman. Written in the 17th century during the English Civil War, this poem exemplifies the Cavalier poetry tradition with its light-hearted treatment of love and sexual desire. The poem takes the form of a dramatic monologue in which the speaker responds to accusations of unfaithfulness, arguing that his infidelity will actually prove his devotion. Rather than being a sincere seduction poem, this work mocks the very idea of commitment whilst celebrating the pursuit of pleasure.
The poem adopts a carpe diem (seize the day) philosophy, prioritising immediate sexual gratification over long-term romantic commitment. Through its regular rhyme scheme and bouncy metre, Lovelace creates an entertaining piece that would have amused his fellow royalist courtiers, even as it reveals the speaker's selfish and patronising attitude towards women.
The phrase "carpe diem" comes from Latin, meaning "seize the day." This philosophy emphasizes living in the present moment and pursuing immediate pleasures rather than worrying about the future or long-term consequences.
Context
Literary context: Cavalier poetry
The Cavalier poets were a group of English writers active during the 1620s to 1640s who came from the upper classes and supported King Charles I during the English Civil War. Lovelace was considered a leading figure within this loose collective. Cavalier poetry distinguished itself from other contemporary styles through several key characteristics:
Cavalier poets favoured strict rhyme schemes, regular metres and clear, accessible forms. Their poetry differed markedly from the complex metaphysical poetry of the period, instead focusing on immediate pleasures such as drinking, sensuality and romantic love. The movement embraced a carpe diem philosophy, encouraging readers to make the most of the present moment. Many Cavalier poets were courtiers themselves, and their work often explored themes of beauty, nature, fellowship, honour and social life. The poetry attempted to capture and celebrate worldly pleasures, sometimes taking on a boisterous and triumphant tone as it revelled in society and encouraged readers to live life to the fullest. This often meant pursuing sexual encounters with women and gaining material wealth.
Despite their dedication to the royalist cause, Cavalier poets rarely wrote directly about political or monarchical affairs, aside from occasional references to battles and honour. However, they were highly educated and respected poets who employed tight logical structures, allegorical references and classical allusions that displayed their intellect and erudition.
Cavalier vs. Metaphysical Poetry
While both movements were active during the same period, they differed significantly:
- Cavalier poetry: Clear, accessible, regular forms; focused on immediate pleasures
- Metaphysical poetry: Complex, intellectual, irregular forms; explored philosophical and spiritual themes
Other characteristics of Cavalier poetry include the use of metaphor, fantasy and representations of platonic love. The latter involved men showing divine love to women, who would be worshipped as creatures of perfection. Men would praise womanly virtues as though they were divine qualities. Notably, this praise is largely absent from 'The Scrutiny', whose speaker adopts a derogatory tone instead.
Historical context
'The Scrutiny' was most likely written in the early 1640s, just before or during the beginning of the English Civil War. This bloody conflict erupted between the Puritans and Royalists over fundamental disagreements about the country's religious direction. The Puritans advocated for a more radical Protestant faith, whilst King Charles I opposed them and insisted on maintaining the more conservative doctrines of the Church of England. The Puritans eventually won the war and executed Charles in 1649, though their victory proved short-lived. Following their leader Cromwell's death in 1658, the monarchy was restored. However, Lovelace did not live to see this restoration; he died in 1657.
Despite being written during a time of significant political turmoil, 'The Scrutiny' does not reflect these tensions. Its humorous, song-like form suggests its purpose was primarily to entertain. Lovelace may have performed the poem for a strained royalist audience seeking distraction from the political upheaval surrounding them.
Synopsis and structure overview
'The Scrutiny' consists of four five-line stanzas called cinquains. As a Cavalier poet, Lovelace clearly aimed to entertain with this poem, writing it almost in a song format. Given the patriarchal context of the time, the poem would have been read at court for King Charles I and would have resonated with a male audience.
The poem begins with the speaker responding to an accusation of unfaithfulness from a woman with whom he apparently spent the previous night. He questions why she would make such a claim, asserting that he has already loved her for a considerable time. The speaker then argues that he should not deprive other women of his fleeting attention, nor should he deprive himself of other lovers.
He declares that others will find joy in her hair and suggests that, like a mineralist searching for valuable resources, he must seek out other beauties. If, after his expedition exploring other women, he discovers she is the most pleasant option, he will return to her satisfied. The poem's central argument - that the speaker will prove more faithful when he returns because he will be satisfied - recalls a twisted logic found in other poems, such as 'A Song (Absent from Thee)', which maintains that infidelity can prove love by provoking torments that serve as evidence of devotion.
The speaker's argument is presented in a see-through manner and is clearly not meant to be taken seriously. The playful and light-hearted nature of the poem is reflected in its metre, which alternates between iambic trimeter and iambic tetrameter. The short lines also reveal the speaker's impatience with the topic of fidelity.
The title
The word scrutiny refers to being critically examined or subjected to a kind of interrogation. Within the context of the poem, Lovelace alludes to the idea that the speaker finds himself under critical observation by the woman he is attempting to dismiss after their night together. The speaker has made vows that he did not actually intend to keep, and now faces the woman's scrutiny following his broken promises.
The title can be read as mocking and almost ironic in tone. The speaker appears dismissive and unconcerned about her scrutiny or disappointment. Lovelace aimed to create a poem that would prove relatable and entertaining to other courtiers, who might have found themselves in similar situations.
Perspective and voice
The poem is written as a dramatic monologue, with the speaker responding to accusations made by the woman. The selfishness of his desires is reflected in the abundance of personal pronouns throughout the opening stanza: "I am forsworn," "I vowed," "I swore" (lines 1-4). This heavy use of first-person pronouns centres the speaker's own needs and desires above any consideration for the woman's feelings.
Dramatic Monologue Characteristics
A dramatic monologue is a poetic form where:
- A single speaker addresses a silent listener
- The speaker's character is revealed through their speech
- The listener's presence is implied but they never respond
- The speaker often reveals more about themselves than they intend
The speaker's attitude towards the woman is patronising, and his tone remains playful throughout. His hyperbolic statement that he has "loved her much and long" (line 6) rings hollow, particularly as he clearly does not care enough about her to address her accusations properly. His candid admission that he will court other women makes it obvious that he could not care less about her feelings or disappointment.
The incongruity between his respectful use of the term "Lady" and his disrespectful treatment of her reveals the speaker's insincerity. He uses "Lady" in a cold and distant manner, possibly even mockingly or ironically. In the context of the period, her virtue would have been seen as compromised by her sexual engagement with the speaker, rendering her no lady in conventional terms.
The Speaker's Character
The speaker displays male entitlement through his readiness to make promises he knows he will break. He treats his companion unfeelingly and disparagingly. His lack of commitment, selfishness and sickening behaviour make him cavalier in the worst sense - meaning haughty, disdainful, supercilious or offhand.
The speaker employs apostrophe by addressing an absent or silent woman, effectively silencing her through his monologuing. He uses rhetorical questions rather than allowing her the opportunity to respond. This technique appears in other poems such as Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress', in which a speaker addresses an absent mistress (also referred to as "lady") whilst attempting to convince her to sleep with him.
Analysis of the opening
The speaker immediately establishes a distant relationship with the lady through his cold and superficially respectful form of address. The impersonal term "Lady" creates distance from any fond or amorous words or actions that might have occurred during their previous encounter. This formal address also generalises the situation, making it more relatable for the courtier audience who might have found themselves in similar circumstances.
The comma and caesura punctuation after "Lady" draws particular attention to this word, with its trochaic stress pattern. Lovelace may intend to highlight the cold formality of the address, contrasting it sharply with the intimacy of the night they have just shared.
Analysing the Opening Lines
The speaker poses a rhetorical question: "Why should you swear I am forsworn,/ Since thine I vowed to be?"
This challenges the legitimacy of the woman's accusations whilst asserting that, although his vow was a "fond impossibility" (line 5), he has fulfilled it by loving her "much and long" (line 6).
Notice the shift in tense:
- "I vowed to be" (past tense) - suggests distance
- "much and long" (implies duration) - contradicts the recent nature of their encounter
The change in tense between the two lines reveals the fickleness of his feelings. He attempts to suggest that their night together occurred long ago, though it is obviously recent. This weak argument demonstrates that he is not trying particularly hard to counter her accusations.
The whiny assonance in "Lady, it is already morn" (line 3) emphasises the speaker's impatience with the woman and his eagerness to leave. He clearly wants to move on from this encounter as quickly as possible.
Structure
Form
The poem comprises four rhyming cinquains (five-line stanzas), creating a 20-line dramatic monologue written in an extremely regular form. However, the poem deliberately avoids following any inherited traditional form such as the sonnet or sestina. This choice perhaps reflects the Cavaliers' rebellious attitudes and their opposition to the dominant Puritanical spirit of the time. Lovelace intended his poem to be performed as a song, emphasising its entertaining and humorous nature.
Rhyme scheme
The rhyme scheme follows an ABABB pattern with no deviations throughout the four stanzas. This consistency immediately creates a sense of regularity and control, mirroring the control the speaker attempts to exert over the woman he addresses. The imbalance of affection between them is reinforced by the rhyme structure.
The rhyming couplet at the end of every stanza produces a trite and hackneyed sound, reflecting the speaker's insincerity. The rhymes are mostly strong and full, and the song-like form lends a singsong quality to the speaker's argument, suggesting he is almost mocking the woman for her assumption that he would remain faithful beyond their single night together.
Rhyme Scheme Evolution
As the poem progresses, the rhyme sounds begin to shift. The B rhyme of the third stanza - "found, sound, ground" - transforms into the A rhyme of the final stanza - "round, crowned." This continuation or linking of the rhyme sounds across stanzas suggests that the speaker has reached the pinnacle of his argument and has become more passionate and excited. He has warmed to his subject and found an argument he considers worthy of his erudition and wit.
The linking of stanzas through rhyme creates cohesion in a poem where almost all lines are end-stopped. The repetition of the first stanza's B rhymes in the final stanza knits the poem together, creating a sense that the speaker's argument is complete and airtight, despite its obvious inability to convince anyone.
Metre
'The Scrutiny' employs iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, maintaining a bouncy, playful and song-like tone throughout. The short metrical feet give the poem a faster pace and keep it light and comical. This rapid pace reflects the poem's carpe diem philosophy, as it deliberately avoids the more prestigious iambic pentameter used in heroic verse. By choosing this lighter metre, Lovelace reminds his audience that this is not a serious or highfaluting poem, despite his high status as a courtier.
The poem's use of playful iambic tetrameter and trimeter aligns it closely with Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress', which employs iambic tetrameter - a metre that falls just short of heroic verse and thus appears to mock the very form it nearly adopts.
Metre and Meaning
The metre alternates between tetrameter and trimeter, meaning some lines fall short of the reader's expectations. When expecting eight syllables, readers encounter only six, as in the first two lines: "Why should you swear I am forsworn,/ Since thine I vowed to be?"
This relative untrustworthiness in the metre (as only every second line can be read as trimeter) matches the speaker's own untrustworthiness and unreliability.
End-stopped lines
Almost all of the poem's lines are end-stopped, with only a few exceptions: "I swore to thee/ That fond impossibility" (lines 1-2), "Like skilful mineralists that sound/ For treasure in unploughed-up ground" (lines 14-15), and "With spoils of meaner beauties crowned/ I laden will return to thee" (lines 18-19). These end-stopped lines lend the speaker a confident and self-assured manner. His sentences can be contrasted with those of someone desperately trying to justify themselves or convince another person - such a person would likely ramble, producing speech patterns reflected by enjambment.
End-stopped poems contain pauses that can slow the reading pace. Nevertheless, this poem remains lively and quick due to its brief metre, which compensates for the end-stopping.
Language and techniques
Simile and metaphor
The speaker employs a simile in the poem's penultimate stanza: "Like skilful mineralists that sound/ For treasure in unploughed-up ground" (lines 14-15). Through this comparison, he likens himself to a geologist searching for valuable minerals. The prestige associated with a geologist's profession conflicts sharply with the sordidness of the speaker's actual plans. The speaker suggests he will specifically seek out virgins, investigating "unploughed-up ground." This language reflects the poem's patriarchal and misogynistic context, in which female virginity was highly prized. Meanwhile, unmarried women who had lost their virginity faced being discarded, shamed and regarded as spoiled goods.
Revealing the Speaker's Prejudice
His stated preference for virgins perhaps explains the change in his attitude towards the woman he addresses. Now that she has been deflowered, he loses respect for her. This simile compares the pursuit of women to a geological expedition, potentially reminding readers of 'Whoso List to Hunt', which employs an extended metaphor comparing the pursuit of a woman to a hunt.
Both speakers view engaging with women as a competitive pursuit - something to be hunted, searched for or pursued. This objectification of women is reinforced by the metaphor the speaker uses in the final stanza, comparing sleeping with women to conquering them. He sees himself as their victor - crowned and bearing the "spoils of war" (line 18) - whilst viewing women as defeated or vanquished. This represents a riff on the traditional patriarchal idea that when a woman has sex for the first time, it constitutes a loss (captured in the phrase "losing your virginity").
Sound devices
Lovelace uses alliteration, consonance and assonance to emphasise key points and create a comedic effect. The alliteration of "tedious twelve" (line 7) creates a tedious sound itself, functioning almost as derogatory mockery. The assonance of "Lady, it is already morn" (line 3) lends the phrase a whiny tone, revealing the speaker's impatience with the woman and his desire to leave quickly.
Sound Devices in the Final Stanza
The speaker employs consonance to strengthen his argument in the final stanza:
"Then, if when I have loved my round, Thou prov'st the pleasant she; With spoyles of meaner Beauties crowned"
The repeated l, n and plosive p sounds add forceful insistence to these lines, creating the impression of passion. Now that the speaker has developed what he considers a strong argument, he enjoys presenting it and feels content enough to elaborate on his justification.
Rhetorical questions
The speaker uses two rhetorical questions in the first and second stanzas. The first rhetorical question challenges the legitimacy of the woman's accusations: How can you say I have forsworn my vow? The second rhetorical question offers a defence of his behaviour, arguing that twelve hours constitutes a long period of time. This hyperbolic and ridiculous statement alerts readers that the speaker is not constructing a serious argument, and that the tone will remain comic throughout.
The first rhetorical question may carry a coded political meaning, as pledges of allegiance to the King were taken very seriously during this period. Lovelace manages to respectfully mock the severity of vows through a sexual encounter that only a male courtier audience could relate to and find humorous.
Themes
Lust and sexual desire
Lust functions as a primary theme throughout the poem. The speaker appears obsessed with satisfying his desires, to the point where it seems almost compulsive. This obsession is indicated by the modal verb "must" (line 13): "I must all other beauties wrong." The satisfaction of sexual desire is linked to patriarchal power dynamics, with the man positioned as victor over the woman he has slept with. This is signalled through the battleground metaphor employed in the final stanza, where the speaker imagines himself crowned and bearing spoils of conquest.
Virginity and purity
The speaker reveals his preference for virgins, describing them as minerals in "unploughed-up ground" (line 15). The speaker may be revealing this preference to the lady as another means of putting her down, signalling that she now represents spoiled goods in his eyes. Lovelace's courtier audience would have been well-respected male individuals who likely shared similar ideas about sex and virginity. The battleground metaphor in the final stanza references the sexual double standard of the time: women lose their virginity and purity when they have sex, whilst men gain something - the spoils of their conquest.
Infidelity and faithfulness
'The Scrutiny' condones infidelity, repeating an argument that many courtiers may have used themselves. The poem mocks women for believing that a one-night stand would lead to something more lasting or committed. It follows the carpe diem style of poetry, emphasising the importance of accruing a wealth of sexual experience rather than maintaining faithful commitment to a single partner. Although the speaker's argument for his promiscuity remains unconvincing, both his situation and his justification would have been relatable and familiar to his male courtier audience.
Critical viewpoints
The careless cavalier
One critical perspective suggests that this poem articulates the pose of the careless Cavalier for whom love is nothing more than a game. Advocates of this interpretation would argue that the speaker acts immorally, making promises and then disowning them the following day. They might even suggest that this cavalier does not truly understand what love is, as the poem contains no tenderness - only coldness remains after the woman has served her function.
A cruel and clever poem
Another viewpoint describes the work as a rather nasty poem: cruel, clever and somehow lacking in real emotion. The speaker does indeed demonstrate cruelty through his revealed preference for fair virgins and his insulting suggestion that their time together was tedious. He shows impatience and adopts a patronising and dismissive attitude towards her affection. However, the poem also displays considerable cleverness in its entertaining nature and its relatability to the courtier audience. The work is refined in its regular form and consistent rhyme scheme, demonstrating Lovelace's poetic skill.
Comparisons with other anthology poems
'The Scrutiny' and 'A Song (Absent from Thee)'
Similarities:
Both poems feature speakers who attempt to convince women that infidelity will ultimately serve them well. Both works employ apostrophe, addressing a silent female figure. Both speakers seem unable to contain their desires - the speaker in 'The Scrutiny' makes desire seem like a compulsion through the modal verb "must," whilst the speaker of 'Absent From Thee' professes to be suffering yet proves unable to stop philandering.
Differences:
Contrasting Speaker Attitudes
The speaker in 'Absent From Thee' demonstrates more self-deprecation than the speaker in 'The Scrutiny'. Wilmot's speaker calls himself a "straying fool," whereas Lovelace's speaker disparages the woman rather than himself, positioning himself as glorified by his future conquests (crowned). The speaker of 'Absent From Thee' addresses a woman with whom he is very familiar - her bosom is described as "safe," and she is equated with home or rest. In contrast, the speaker in 'The Scrutiny' addresses someone with whom he has only had a one-night encounter.
The poems also differ in tone and atmosphere. Wilmot's work carries a heavy and remorseful quality, whilst Lovelace's poem employs light and comedic language and imagery. 'Absent From Thee' features a satirist poet, whilst 'The Scrutiny' represents Cavalier poetry. Finally, whilst 'Absent From Thee' discusses romantic love, commitment for the speaker of 'The Scrutiny' remains only a distant possibility described conditionally as "if, when" - love itself is never even mentioned in Lovelace's poem.
'The Scrutiny' and 'Remember'
Similarities:
Both speakers address a silent other, using apostrophe to control the conversation. Structured rhyming couplets help maintain this sense of control in both poems.
Differences:
Contrasting Selflessness and Selfishness
Rossetti's speaker demonstrates selflessness, encouraging her lover to forget her if remembering causes pain. In contrast, Lovelace's speaker remains utterly selfish, prioritising his own desire to philander above any consideration for the woman's feelings. Rossetti does not focus on sexual love in her poem; instead, it offers a tender reflection on their relationship and the possibility of separation through death.
Remember!
Key Points to Remember:
- 'The Scrutiny' is a Cavalier poem that exemplifies the carpe diem tradition, prioritising immediate pleasure over commitment and mocking the idea of fidelity.
- The dramatic monologue form allows the speaker to silence the woman through rhetorical questions and apostrophe, revealing his patronising and dismissive attitude.
- The regular ABABB rhyme scheme and alternating iambic tetrameter/trimeter create a bouncy, song-like quality that emphasises the poem's playful, insincere tone.
- Key themes include lust and sexual desire, the cultural valuation of virginity, and the condoning of male infidelity within patriarchal power structures.
- The poem uses metaphors comparing women to geological treasures and military conquests, objectifying them and reflecting the sexual double standards of 17th-century society.