Defending the Written Word
â??The world will have forgotten all the great masterpieces of literature when it forgets Lovelaceâ??s three verses to Lucasta on his going to the wars. More durable than marble or bronze are the words, â??I could not love thee, deare, so much, loved I not honor more.â?? â?? Thomas Bailey Aldrich
A scholar, a soldier, a captain, a convict, a philantropher, a poet â?? Richard Lovelace did more in his 39 years during the mid-17th century than most modern-day men do who live twice as long. However, it is likely that the same tokens by which he lived was also his greatest downfall.
Born into wealth in 1618, Richard Lovelace was the eldest of Sir William Lovelace and Anne Barnes Lovelace in Woolwich of Kent. The familyâ??s wealth benefitted him at an early age and when his father died in battle in 1627, he was sent to elementary school at the prestigious Charterhouse School in Oxford.
Lovelaceâ??s talents as a wordsmith came shining through by the time he was 16. He had crafted a comedic script called â??The Scholarâ?? which was performed on the Oxford stage. Among audience members one evening were King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria.
Drawn to his evident talents, Lovelaceâ??s overall demeanor caught the attention of the king and the queen. As one kind court lady said, he was a â??... most ambiable and beautiful person that ever eye beheld.â?? So courtly in his deportment, the king who appointed him a Master of Arts despite his young age and only two years into his studies.
Although he pursued his education by enrolling in Cambridge University, Lovelace had become quite close to the king and his court. In fact, King Charles I specifically requested his involvement in a series of Scottish expeditions.
Under George Lord Goring, Lovelace served as a soldier during the first expedition in 1639. By the second mission, in 1640 he was leading the troops as a captain. It was during this time that Lovelace penned the tragedy, â??The Soldier.â?? Although his play was completed it was never performed before an audience as all dramatic stage presentations were forbidden at the time.
After his second mission to the Highlands, Lovelace returned to Kent where he resumed residence in Lovelace Palace for the next two years. During this time, he met frequently with Sir John Suckling who likely served as somewhat of a mentor for Lovelaceâ??s writing career.
Even though Lovelace may have seemed to become completely devoted to writing lyrics, poems and scripts, righting the wrongs done to the monarchy that he so loved. Selected as a spokesperson to represent citizens of the Royalist party, Lovelace was assigned the duty of presenting the Anti-Parliamentary Petition of Kent to the House of Commons to restore the kingâ??s power. Upon delivering his message he was arrested and imprisoned at Gatehouse in Westminster where he spent the next four months.
It was during this imprisonment that Lovelace wrote one of his most famous poems, â??To Althea, from Prison.â?? Itâ??s most notable phrase: â??Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage.â?? He goes on to express that although he has been locked up his spirit could never been harnessed.
Just weeks before the British Civil War broke out, Lovelace was released on bail and a warning to â??... not stir out of the lines of communication.â?? Holding his tongue was not a problem. Instead, Lovelace sold a bit of his property and continued to supply horses, arms and money to all those willing to fight for the Royalists.
In addition, joined by two of his brothers, Francis and Dudley, (William had been killed in the 1644 battle at Carmarthen, Wales, while under his brother Francisâ?? command), Lovelace formed a regiment to serve King Louis XIV of France.
His tour of duty did not last long as he was critically wounded while fighting Spanish forces in Dunkirk. Accompanied by brother Dudley, they returned to England and Lovelace was promptly thrown back into jail, this time in Petrehouse in London.
Although most of his time and efforts had been devoted to rallying troops and leading them into wars, Lovelace had found plenty of time to explore amourous intentions. The apple of his eye was Lucy Sacheverel whom he fondly referred to as Lux casta (Lucasta.) She was reportedly a kind and gentle woman who had quite a significant fortune monetarily and seemingly owned all of Lovelaceâ??s heart.
During the period of time he was preparing for war until his death Lucasta was always at the top of his mind. This was most evident in his first collection of poems called â??Lucasta: Epodes, Odes, Sonnets, Songs, etc.â?? published shortly after his release from prison.
From â??To Lucasta: Going Beyond the Seasâ?? Lovelaceâ??s words echo that of a star-struck 17th century teenager.
Though Seas and Land betwixt us both,
Our Faith and Troth,
Like separated soules,
All time and space controules :
Above the highest sphere wee meet
Unseene, unknowne, and greet as Angels greet.
So smitten was he that Lovelace imagined scenarios and wrote about them as though he were witness. Such is the case with â??Lucasta: Weeping Songâ?? and â??Dialogue: Lucasta, Alexis.â??
Despite his undying devotion, word that Lovelace had indeed perished from the wounds he received in Dunkirk reached Lucasta. Doing the only logical thing a mid-17th century young woman of virtue could do, Lucasta married another. And Lovelace sat in Petrehouse completely unaware.
Of course, a handful of other individuals served as influences for Lovelaceâ??s poetry such as â??On the Deaht of Mrs. Elizabeth Filmer, An Elegicall Epitaphâ?? and his ode â??The Grass-hopper, To My Noble Friend, Mr. Charles Cotton.â?? In this latter ode it becomes evident that writing poetry was truly cathartic for Lovelace. He writes:
Thou best of Men and Friends ! we will create
A Genuine Summer in each others breast ;
And spite of this cold Time and frosen Fate
Thaw us a warme seate to our rest.
But even through the therapy of rhyming iambic pentameters not all can be healed.
By the time Lovelace was finally released in the spring of 1649, all of his resources had been expunged. Selling what was left of his familyâ??s estate bought him only rags and pity. Physically, he was not much better off. Tired, gaunt and poor, Lovelace lived on the streets in downtown London accepting charity when it was offered. He died penniless and destitute in 1958.
Gone, he was hardly forgotten. During the last nine years of his life, Lovelace continued to write, again focusing on his lost love for the most part. These final poems were gathered by his only living brother, Dudley, and culled into a second volume of poetry published in 1959 entitled â??Lucasta: Posthume Poems.â?? His last creations serve as evidence that the gallant man whose kindness and beauty had been left behind in war and prison.
From â??A Fly Caught in a Cobweb,â?? he writes:
Was it not better once to play
I' th' light of a majestick ray,
Where, though too neer and bold, the fire
Might sindge thy upper down attire,
And thou i' th' storm to loose an eye.
A wing, or a self-trapping thigh:
Yet hadst thou fal'n like him, whose coil
Made fishes in the sea to broyl,
When now th'ast scap'd the noble flame;
Trapp'd basely in a slimy frame,
And free of air, thou art become
Slave to the spawn of mud and lome?
In a sense, Lovelace is one of Englandâ??s most obscure famous poets but joined by others such as Sir John Suckling, Thomas Carew, Ben Jonson and Abraham Crowley, they were responsible for their own distinct style of poetry. Called Cavalier poets, these were a courtly gentleman who penned romantic lyrics but whose primary purpose in life was supporting King Charles I at a time when it served them best. With the threat of removing the monarchy in favor of a parliament, the status of the arts was in jeopardy. By supporting their king, they were thereby supporting their own interests in keeping the idealism of the spoken word alive and available to the people.
Bibliography
1.) Bartlettâ??s Familiar Quotations, 10th edition
2.) Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Vol. VII
3.) Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th edition
4.) Oxford University Press, 17th Century English Poets, 1988.
5.) The Poems of Richard Lovelace, Unit Library Ltd., 1904
6.) www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/poetry
7.) www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/lovelace
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The Physical Lure of Fishing
Musculature and Joints Involved in Casting a Rod
Although faithful fishermen and women would certainly balk, not everday is a good day to go fishing. Sure, the weather maybe just right, the water still and cool and no one but no one may know about your secret spot, but if you’ve managed to sprain your wrist, overdo it at tennis or wrench your shoulder, a day of fishing will be nothing much more than painful.
Maybe it’s due to the complexity of the body movements involved in angling that have made this leisurely pasttime into a sport. It’s quite conceivable that by spending a little time in the gym developing those deltoids, biceps, and triceps just might land you a few more fish.
It’s a well-known fact that the biggest fish live in the deepest part of the water, so if you’re heading out to Three Mile Lake and you don’t have a boat, having significant muscle strength in your shoulder, elbow and wrist will better allow you to make use of Newton’s first, second, and third law of biomechanical principles.
Granted, a hook, line, and sinker don’t weigh very much — a fraction of a fraction at best when compared to even a child’s arm — however, that hook isn’t going to go anywhere until a force (your arm’s movement) sends it sailing out into the air landing, hopefully a good distance from the shore.
In conjunction with Newton’s second law (Force=Mass x Acceleration), the more force put behind casting the line increases speed thusly affecting the distance that the line will span. So, the more force, the further out your hook will go (Newton’s third law) and the better your chances are of snagging a dinner for two instead of bait for your next attempt. (Your success is also largely dependent upon aerodynamics, but that’s another story.)
While everything from an angler’s height to his center of balance can come into play when casting a fishing line, the tool doing most of the work is the arm. From shoulder blade to phalanges, you’ll actively engage all ___ skeletal muscles in a series of agonistic and antagonistic movements.
The Wind Up
With the hook baited and the line pulled to the top of your rod, the lumbricales, palmar interossei, palmar brevis, opponens and flexor digiti minimi muscles flex to wrap the phalanges around the fishing rod handle which in turn lengthens the dorsal interossei. But it’s the saddle-jointed thumb that gets the action going. Poised directly over the line release button, the ever important adductor pollicis (the muscle that allows us the freedom of circumduction in that little digit) will be slightly flexed, extending the abductor pollicis brevis, the opponens pollicis, and the extensor pollicis brevis and longus which extend just beyond the wrist and the abductor pollicis longs which attaches to the posterior of the ulna.
A firm grip and a thumb at the ready, the casting motion begins much further up in the arm — all the way up at the shoulder. Much like the thumb, the shoulder is another one of those wonderful joints that allows a wide range of movement including circumduction, lateral and medial rotation — all of which will greatly increase your chances for a good cast. The primary reason we are able to move our arm in these various fashion is due to the type of joint that secures the arm to the shoulder, and, of course, the flexibility and strength of the muscles and ligaments that surround that joint.
Termed the glenohumeral cavity, the head of the humerus is fitted into the scapula at a concave curve called the glenoid. More commonly referred to as a ball-and-socket joint, the two bones are provided a cushion in between called the articular cartilage. While the
scapularis, infrraspinatus, teres minor and major, coracobrachialis and deltoid make up the rotator cuff (pic. 1 to the right) that connect the arm to the shoulder blade and allow the humerus to move in its many directions.
The muscles that initiate elbow elevation and arm abduction begins with the depression of the scapula. The trapezius and serratus anterior slide the shoulder blade down along the rib cage thus extending the chest muscles allowing greater ease in distal movement of the arm into a superior position which will place the rod and reel, hand and wrist overhead with the elbow, ideally poised at or above ear-height. Muscles in the posterior portion of the body will undergo an isotonic or concentric contraction, while anterior muscles will undergo an eccentric contraction.
Just as you are ready to send the line into the water, the upper arm will be abducted and laterally rotated thanks largely to the deltoid and latissimus dorsi, the biceps flexed, and the triceps lengthened. The anconeus is also quite active as it links the humerus to the lateral part of the ulna.
The forearm (pic. 2 to the left) composed of the radius (distal) and ulna (proximal) work in conjunction with each other at two points. First the hinge or ginglymus joint at the elbow where flexion and extension on a coronal axis is permitted. During flexion, the bicep peforms a concentric contraction. When extended the triceps takes over in an eccentric contraction.
At the caudal end of the forearm, the radius and ulna work together at the radioulnar joint, a trochoid or pivot joint which allows the bones, in a sense, to change places, or supinate and pronate. As you prepare to cast your line into the water, the forearm will be supinated just enough to aim your pinky finger in the direction you’d like your line to go. This requires the flexion of the palmaris longus to draw tension on the hand to the elbow, and flexion of the felxor digitorum superficialis and profundus, the flexor carpi ulnaris and most importantly the pronator teres, quadratus, supinator, and brachioradialius.
The Pitch
With a little help from chest muscles such as the pectorals, the muscles that make up the rotator cuff will contract concentrically working the glenohumeral joint as a fulcrum. This contraction is supplemented by the relaxation followed by the extension of the middle and lower trapezius, serratus anterior and latissimus dorsi.
The rhomboids which originate at the second through fifth thoracic vertabrae and insert a the medial border of the scapula will also stretch while the levator scapulae and upper trapezius shorten to pull the shoulder blade up as the deltoid circumducts the arm slightly into the anterior frontal plane. The subscapularus and infraspinatus will also stretch.
It is this movement that will provide the greatest amount of momentum. However, by concentrically contracting the triceps, relaxing the biceps and supinator and extending the coracorbrachialis the momentum continues to send the tip of the rod in an angle toward the lake. The pronator quadratus also contracts while the pronator teres releases.
Then the brain must send a message to the thumb telling it to depress the line release button. By flexing the adductor pollicis and the flexor pollicis brevis which engages the flexor pollicis longus and stretches the extensor pollicis brevis and longus and the abductor pollicis longus, the fishing line will begin to unwind led by the weight of the hook and bait.
The Follow Through
To ensure your line goes the furthest distance possible, it is important to keep the momentum flowing until the hook hits the water. As the arm continues to extend anteriorly in the frontal plane, the triceps and pronator quadratus will continue to contract and the biceps, brachioradialis, and pronator teres will continue to stretch complemented by the isometric contraction of flexor carpi ulnaris and the extension of the extensor carpi radialis. The flexor carpi ulnaris will slightly contract to ensure the handle of the rod stays firmly in your grip but the flexor carpi radialis will lengthen to help continue the momentum. The supinator, of course, plays a key factor in pulling the radius over the ulna for full extension of the forearm.
Once you hear that wonderful ker-plunk, the thumb can take a break and release, relaxing the adductor pollicis, flexor pollicis brevis and flexor pollicis longus. And so can you. Your arm has done all the work necessary to earn you your dinner. Now it up to the fish to take the bait. Pull up a lawn chair and wait for that first nibble.
Bibliography
Books:
Kendall, F. P., McCreary, E. K., & Provance, P. G. (1993). Muscles Testing and Function (4th ed.). Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins.
Murray, Diane & Conte, William (1980). Bones and Muscles of the Human Form. New York: Alfred Publishing Co. Inc.
Online:
The Human Bones & Muscles. http://pc65.frontier.osrhe.edu/hs/science/bbones.htm
The Hosford Muscle Tables: Skeletal Muscles of the Human Body, Brachium to Hand Musculature. http://www.ptcentral.com/muscles/musclearms.html#brachium
Graphics:
1.) The Southern California Orthopedic Institute. http://www.scoi.com/sholanat.htm
2.) The Body Movable by D. Gorman. http://www.learningmethods.com/images/
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