Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AGAINST ABSENCE, by JOHN SUCKLING


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AGAINST ABSENCE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My whining lover, what needs all
Last Line: For surfeits sooner kill than fasts.
Subject(s): Absence; Love; Separation; Isolation


My whining lover, what needs all
These vows of life monastical?
Despairs, retirements, jealousies,
And subtle sealing up of eyes?
Come, come, be wise, return again,
A finger burnt's as great a pain;
And the same physic, selfsame art,
Cures that would cure a flaming heart,
Wouldst thou whiles yet the fire is in
But hold it to the fire again.
If you, dear sir, the plague have got,
What matter is 't whether or not
They let you in the same house lie,
Or carry you abroad to die?
He whom the plague, or love, once takes,
Every room a pest-house makes.
Absence were good if 'twere but sense
That only held th' intelligence:
Pure love alone no hurt would do.
But love is love, and magic, too;
Brings a mistress thousand miles,
And the sleight of locks beguiles;
Makes her entertain thee there,
And the same time your rival here;
And (oh, the devil!) that she should
Say finer things now than she would;
So nobly fancy doth supply
What the dull sense lets fall and die.
Beauty like man's old enemy's known
To tempt him most when he's alone:
The air of some wild o'ergrown wood
Or pathless grove is the Boy's food.
Return then back, and feed thine eye,
Feed all thy senses, and feast high.
Spare diet is the cause love lasts,
For surfeits sooner kill than fasts.






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