Just Let Her Go
Sir John Suckling was an English Poet born in February 1609. He was a poet and a dramatist too. His works were well known for being lighthearted and witty. They were also known as “lyrics” because he would often sing his poems. He served under Charles I as a Cavalier poet. As a Cavalier poet should, he wrote exclusively for the king. Only the best of the best were chosen to be Cavalier poets and Sir John Suckling was chosen which shows how great a poet he was. One of his greatest works was “Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover?”, a poem about forgetting about a girl because she isn’t worth it.
Similarly, James Bay is an English singer-songwriter and a guitarist. He made his big break in February 2015 with his hit song “Let It Go”, a song about a relationship going wrong and needing to let go and move on. This song struck home to many people listening to it for the first time on the radio. The song grew so much in popularity that James Bay received the “Brits Choice” award, “Critics’ Choice” award, and the award for the Best British Male Solo Artist.
The first and most obvious comparison between these two pieces is the fact that they both talk about letting go. In “Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover” by John Suckling, the last Stanza it states “Quit, quit for shame, this will not move, this will not take her.” This line strongly implies that you should just give up and let go of the girl you’re chasing after. In a similar way, in “Let It Go” by James Bay he says very clearly “So come on, let it go. Just let it be .Why don’t you be you And I’ll be me?” In this stanza he is saying the same thing as what John Suckling was saying. He’s saying to just let her go and that the person need her.
The second similarity is that this love that they both had for their “special someone” ended up hurting them. “Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover” shows that he is hurt even in the title. The man who is in love has turned pale and looks ill. In the second stanza it says that he has also turned dull and mute. “Let It Go” by James Bay says “All this delusion in our heads is gonna bring us to our knees”. This line explains that he has even gone delusional because of his pain.
Conversely, the difference between these poems is that in “Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover”, the man in love is still trying to get the girl. Not being able to get the girl to love him back is what made him pale and wan. In “Let It Go” on the other hand, James is in pain because the relationship he is in is falling apart. In his song, he sings about letting go of his relationship with her because it does not benefit either of them.
In conclusion, these two pieces of literature truly are each other’s counterparts. These two pieces of literature talk about what it is to be a human being going through life. They talk about how life does not always go right, and when it doesn’t go right, we need to let it go. Maybe what you wanted wasn’t what God wanted for you and that’s ok because surely He has something better for you.
