"Cavalier" was a common label for many poets in 17th-century Britain, and Sir John Suckling is the most famous example. He was a court poet to Charles I, but lost his job when the king went into exile. Suckling wrote several poems about his love for a woman named Margery Frye. He called her "pale and wan-fond," which means "lovely and melancholy." She returned his feelings and they may have been married. But because she was a lowly servant he could not honor their union with the rites of law. So he called her "pale and wan-fond" to express his sorrow at her death. This poem is one of the few by Suckling that has survived into modern times. It is written in iambic pentameter, a type of poetic line composed of five pairs of metered syllables: an initial sound (or "iamb"), followed by a pause, then two further iambs, followed by another pause, and finally a terminal sound (or "rhyme"). The meter of Suckling's poem is regular but it is not easy to read because the language used is very flowery.