John Suckling

English poet

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

If of herself she cannot love,
Nothing can make her:
The devil take her!
Oh for some honest lover's ghost,
Some kind unbodied post
Sent from the shades below!
No grape, that’s kindly ripe, could be / So round, so plump, so soft as she, / Nor half so full of juice.
’Tis expectation makes a blessing dear; / Heaven were not heaven, if we knew what it were.

Quotes

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Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover?

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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

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  • 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)

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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.
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