John Suckling



Sir John Suckling (February 10, 1609 – June 1, 1642) was an English Cavalier poet.

Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover?

 * Full text at Wikisource


 * Why so pale and wan, fond lover Prithee, why so pale?
 * Will, when looking well can't move her, Looking ill prevail? Prithee, why so pale?
 * Quit, quit, for shame, this will not move: This cannot take her. If of herself she cannot love, Nothing can make her: The devil take her!
 * Aglaura (1638); Fragmenta Aurea (1646)

Other poems

 * If I a fancy take To black and blue, That fancy doth it beauty make.
 * Of thee (kind boy) I ask no red and white.


 * 'Tis now since I sat down before That foolish fort, a heart, (Time strangely spent) a year, and more, And still I did my part:
 * 'Tis Now, Since I Sat Down Before.


 * Oh for some honest lover's ghost, Some kind unbodied post Sent from the shades below! I strangely long to know Whether the nobler chaplets wear Those that their mistress' scorn did bear, Or those that were used kindly.
 * Oh! For some honest lover's ghost.
 * Fragmenta Aurea (1646), Sonnets, III


 * No grape, that’s kindly ripe, could be So round, so plump, so soft as she, Nor half so full of juice.
 * Ballad upon a Wedding.


 * Her feet beneath her petticoat Like little mice stole in and out, As if they feared the light; But oh, she dances such a way! No sun upon an Easter-day Is half so fine a sight.
 * Ballad upon a Wedding.
 * Compare: "Her pretty feet, like snails, did creep / A little out, and then, / As if they played at bo-peep, / Did soon draw in again", Robert Herrick, To Mistress Susanna Southwell.

A Book of Quotations, Proverbs and Household Words (1924)

 * W. Guerney Benham, A Book of Quotations, Proverbs and Household Words (1914), p. 351


 * ’Tis expectation makes a blessing dear; Heaven were not heaven, if we knew what it were.
 * Against Fruition. St. 4.


 * They who know all the wealth they have are poor; He's only rich that cannot tell his store.
 * Against Fruition. St. 5.


 * Her feet beneath her petticoat Like little mice, stole in and out, As if they feared the light. But oh! she dances such a way— No sun upon an Easter day  Is half so fine a sight!
 * Ballad upon a Wedding. St. 8.
 * See Herrick: "Her pretty feet / Like snails did creep."


 * For streaks of red were mingled there, Such as are on a Catherine pear (The side that's next the sun)
 * Ballad upon a Wedding. St. 10.


 * Her lips were red, and one was thin Compared to that was next her chin, (Some bee had stung it newly).
 * Ballad upon a Wedding. St. 11.


 * Our sins, like to our shadows, When our day is in its glory, scarce appear: Towards our evening how great and monstrous They are!
 * Aglaura.


 * Why so pale and wan, fond lover? Prithee why so pale?
 * Aglaura. Song.


 * She's pretty to walk with, And witty to talk with, And pleasant, too, to think on.
 * Brennoralt.


 * Her face is like the milky way i' the sky, A meeting of gentle lights without a name.
 * Brennoralt.


 * The prince of darkness is a gentleman.
 * The Goblins.
 * Compare: Shakespeare, King Lear, III, iv, l. 147.


 * I thought to undermine the heart By whispering in the ear.
 * ’Tis now, since I sat down before.