‘Why so pale
and wan, fond
lover?’
Sir John Suckling
octosyllabic and pentasyllabic (5 syllables) lines
regular rhyme (ababb…)
colloquialism
sprezzatura - fine carelessness
natural, easy, informal and spontaneous on the
surface; but careful and rather serious in its
substance
speaker: an experienced Cavalier playboy giving out
advice to an inexperienced young man
addressee: an abject Petrarchan lover
disapproving his affected gloominess and melancholy
the lover’s ‘pale,’ ‘ill’ look is unfashionable, unbecoming,
and pretentious (also unnatural)
condemning the lady - she is utterly unkind (i.e.
‘unnatural’) and heartless
her unnatural cruelty belongs (not to nature and to God
but) to the ‘devil’
lighthearted exercise of wit
sarcastic but also playful, joking
criticizing courtly love as being too complicated, too
unnatural ~ the cult of the devil
the mistress (the lover’s idol or goddess) is actually the
devil
the lover is a sinner who worships love’s false religion
love should be a practical, sensible, and enjoyable
experience; any kind of love which involves self-torture is
not a true love
‘Out upon it!’
colloquialism (‘out upon it!’, ‘fair weather’)
mock-Petrarchan: making fun of typical
Petrarchan constant lover, gallantry
constantly inconstant lover
backhanded compliment to the mistress
The Grasshopper
Richard Lovelace
Poor
verdant fool!
and now
green ice!
Structure
stanza 1-3; end of summer
stanza 4-6; winter
stanza 7-9; spring
stanza 10; moral conclusion
Internal structure
stanza 5; life/death, ice/grass
stanza 6; summer/winter
stanza 7; hearth, Etna/north wind
stanza 8; December/old Greek
stanza 9; light/dark
stanza 10; rich/poor
Horatian ode
homostrophic (regular) pattern
alternate rhymes (abab…)
dealing with friendship in the time of troubles in a lighthearted, and yet serious, manner (cf. Jonson’s Pindaric
ode ‘To the Immortal Memory and Friendship of That
Noble Pair, Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry Morison’)
elevated style, complex syntax
classical allusion
To Althea, from Prison
situation: the speaker is imprisoned by the puritans because of
his loyalty to the king in time of republicanism
physical imprisonment / spiritual imprisonment
paradox: spiritual imprisonment —> true freedom
image of imprisonment:
stz. 1 - hair (to Althea)
stz. 2 - head (to friends)
stz. 3 - throat (to king)
‘flowing cups’ - alcohol, wine, friendship, congeniality
‘Thames’ - water from Thames which weaken or
dilute the purity of alcohol (also a negative
connotation since Tower of London—an execution
site for political prisoners, a fate which awaits the
speaker—is located on the bank of Thames)
‘bound’ (l. 11)
negative: bind (manacle, prison imagery)
positive: bond (of friendship, of loyalty to the
king, and of love)
In the last stanza, the physical prison has
become the spiritual sanctuary since the speaker
has found true freedom in his love to Althea, his
friendship, and his loyalty to the king.
‘Angels,’ ‘soars above’ (l. 31) pure intellect,
spiritual flight
spiritual freedom triumphs over physical
imprisonment
‘To Lucasta, Going to the Wars’
Lucasta: Lux (light) + castus (chaste); pure light
‘nunnery’ - convent; the chaste, virtuous lady in a convent
contrast with the disorder of the war
‘arms’ (l. 4) - pun: weapons, embrace
ll. 5-6 metaphor: new mistress ~ enemy in the war
Lucasta will adore such ‘inconstancy’ of the speaker since he bravely
gives up his own comfort (Lucasta’s ‘chaste breast and quiet mind’) to
fight for the honor of his king
country and honor come before one’s own love