ENGLISH - The Scrutiny - by Lovelace

• what does the 'scrutiny' mean?

  being critically examined or being subject to a kind
• context of the scrutiny

  Lovelace was a leader of cavalier poets

  cavalier poets celebrated beauty, nature, fellowship and honour

  cavalier poets rarely wrote about political or monarchial affairs
• historical context


  written in the early years before the 1640s before or just after civil war between puritans and royalists

  puritans advocated for a more radical protestant faith attitudes

  was written in political turnmoil - poem does not reflect this it is humourous and used for entertainment
• whats the structure of the poem

  rhyming quatrains

  20 line dramatic monologue

  regular form

  does strictly follow form - links to cavaliers being rebellious

  performed as a song - to entertain and to be humourous
• whats the rhyme scheme of the poem

  ABABB - regularity and control

  strong rhymes

  dramatic monologue
• the scrutiny AO5 critical views

  'the poem articulates the prose of the careless cavalier for whom love is nothing more than a game"

  speaker acts immorally, making promises and disowning them the next day

  cavalier poet does not know what love is - coldness and no tenderness of the speaker
• 'why should you swear i am'


  suggests speaker will prioritise his needs and desires over hers
• 'lady, it is already morn'


  emphasis on the noun 'lady' - created by caesura

  Lovelace may want to draw attention to his cold formality of which contrasts the intimacy of the night before
• 'and twas last night, i swore to thee' 


  change in tense which shows fickle feelings, tries to say last night was a long time ago - its obviously not - weak argument
• 'i must prove all other beauties wrong'


  ironically suggests he could 'wrong' other women by not sleeping with them - in reality this is wrong
• 'fob thee of a new embrace'


  tries to portray abandonment as charity - he does not want to 'rob' her of a new lover
• "for treasure in unploughed- up ground"


  prefers women who have not been discovered by other men