The advice contained in this poem is not given so subtly nor so gracefully as it is in the other two poems of the trio—Ronsard’s and Waller’s—but the writer is neither a sweet singer like Ronsard nor a poet of nicer instincts like Waller. He was a man who did not scruple to “sully the purity of his style with impurity of sentiment.”
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of Heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
The age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And, while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
WHY SO PALE AND WAN?
BY SIR JOHN SUCKLING.
Sir John Suckling was born in Whitton in 1609. He went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and afterwards entered the service of the King, Charles I. He fought in the army of Gustavus Adolphus in 1631–32; while in 1639 he levied a troop of horse against the Covenanters. He was a member of the long parliament in 1640. The next year he was charged with high treason and fled to Paris, where he was supposed to have committed suicide in 1642. Though he wrote several plays, he is chiefly noted for his poems.
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!