[1688] Why so Pale and Wan?

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?

Why so dull and mute, young sinner?
       Prithee, why so mute?
Will, when speaking well can't win her,
       Saying nothing do 't?
       Prithee, why so mute?

Quit, quit for shame! This will not move;
       This cannot take her.
If of herself she will not love,
       Nothing can make her:
       The devil take her!

	-- John Suckling

I thought I would add my bit to the poems-one-has-been-moved-to-memorize
theme. Great theme by the way.

This poem is great fun and just terribly useful which is not something one
can say about many poems. This poem is as good as a spanner in the house. If
it cannot make a friend in the romantic doldrums laugh, the friend is
currently beyond redemption.

Suckling is one  of the Cavalier poets, the poets of the court of Charles I.
His writing is marked for its witty but ultra-casual style. This lyric poem
is from his play Aglaura which had two endings (one tragic and one happy)
but didn't quite make it in the box office. There has been much speculation
about whether Suckling was someone who wrote in semi-serious vein to hide
his sharp, social insights and rejection of ritual or someone who was never
serious about the craft of writing.

More about the good man:
  http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/suckling/

Nisha.

[this poem is archived, accessible and awaiting your comments at]
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1688.html
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