John Suckling “Song” (“Why so pale...”)

1. Who is the speaker in the poem and who is the addressee?

2. Why is the addressee “pale and wan” and “dull and mute”?

3. The poem plays with certain conventions of love poetry - cf. the dialogue between Ophelia and Polonius below. How does the poem question or subvert them?

4. The poem was originally a song in a play. What features of its language emphasize its musical quality?

5. The first two stanzas follow a similar pattern (they all begin with the similar questions, end with similar words etc.), the last one breaks the pattern. Can you think of the reason why the third stanza is so different from the previous two?

OPHELIA

He took me by the wrist and held me hard;
Then goes he to the length of all his arm;
And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,
He falls to such perusal of my face
As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so;
At last, a little shaking of mine arm
And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
He raised a sigh so piteous and profound
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
And end his being: that done, he lets me go:
And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd,
He seem'd to find his way without his eyes;
For out o' doors he went without their helps,
And, to the last, bended their light on me.

LORD POLONIUS

Come, go with me: I will go seek the king.
This is the very ecstasy of love,
Whose violent property fordoes itself
And leads the will to desperate undertakings
As oft as any passion under heaven
That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.
What, have you given him any hard words of late?

Robert Herrick “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”

1. The second line is the translation of a famous Latin maxim - which one?

2. Another Latin poem that Herrick echoes is Horace's ode “Eheu fugaces” (which could be summed up as “all things must decay”). What images used in the poem illustrate this?

3. What does “gathering rosebuds” stand for? What is the parallel between the Virgins addressed in the poem and the flowers?

4. What mythological reference does Herrick make by referring to the sun as a racing chariot?

Richard Lovelace “Song: To Lucasta, Going to Wars”

1. The first stanza is built around two contrasting ideas. What are they?

2. Lovelace makes a pun using the word “arms” (extended further by his use of “embrace”). What meanings of the word does he use?

3. The poem is based on a paradox - the speaker admits that his constancy could be questioned. Why in the end, as he argues, he is actually true to his love?

4. What wars does the poet refer to? Why is honour and constancy such an important issue in this time and place?

Andrew Marvell “To His Coy Mistress”

1. The poem begins with a supposition, “what-if” kind of sentence. What is this hypothetical situation the poet imagines?

2. Certain sound effects in the first part of the poem slow the reader down, while in the second part the poem speeds up. Can you tell why?

3. By referring to “the conversion of the Jews” Marvell alludes to a certain belief popular in his times. When, according to seventeenth-century people, was this event going to happen?

4. Why does the poet call his love “vegetable”?

5. What poetic tradition does the poet refer to by saying how much time he would like to spend on praising the individual parts of the lover's body?

6. After the warm fantasy of the first part the poet confronts it with reality. How does he describe it?

7. The poem is constructed like a logical argument: the first premise, the second premise and after the word “therefore” the conclusion. Can you spot the subtle logical fallacy in the reasoning?

8. This is a poem on a similar theme to Herrick's. Some critics claim that the poem is actually a parody of the theme. Can you see why?

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