Out upon it, I have lov'd Three whole days together; And am like to love three more, If it prove fair weather.

These lines come from Sir John Suckling’s lyric “Song” (often identified by its opening, “Out upon it, I have lov’d / Three whole days together”). Suckling (1609–1642) was a prominent Cavalier poet at the court of Charles I, known for witty, urbane verse that treats love as a social game rather than a solemn devotion. The poem belongs to the Caroline courtly milieu in which fashionable gallantry, epigrammatic brevity, and a lightly skeptical tone were prized. The speaker’s complaint—half comic, half self-mocking—fits Suckling’s characteristic pose of the sophisticated lover who refuses to be overawed by passion.

The speaker satirizes the conventions of constant, idealized love by measuring his “devotion” in absurdly short units: three days, with the possibility of three more only “if it prove fair weather.” Love is treated as a mood contingent on comfort and circumstance, like a pastime interrupted by bad weather. The humor undercuts Petrarchan seriousness and exposes how performative courtship can be. At the same time, the lines suggest a modern-sounding frankness about emotional volatility: desire is real but fleeting, and the speaker prefers honesty and wit to grand vows he cannot keep.