Lyric Poem · Sad

Farewell to the Court

by Sir Walter Raleigh

Reading room

1Like truthless dreams, so are my joys expir'd,

2And past return are all my dandled days;

3My love misled, and fancy quite retir'd —

4Of all which pass'd the sorrow only stays.

5My lost delights, now clean from sight of land,

6Have left me all alone in unknown ways;

7My mind to woe, my life in fortune's hand —

8Of all which pass'd the sorrow only stays.

9As in a country strange, without companion,

10I only wail the wrong of death's delays,

11Whose sweet spring spent, whose summer well-nigh done —

12Of all which pass'd only the sorrow stays.

13Whom care forewarns, ere age and winter cold,

14To haste me hence to find my fortune's fold.

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“Farewell to the Court” by Sir Walter Raleigh — quilloak.com/poems/farewell-to-the-court

Quick facts

Poem: Farewell to the Court
Poet: Sir Walter Raleigh
Length: 14 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Sad, Nature, Winter

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 14 lines · 4 stanzas of 2–4 lines
Line length: Lines run 9-11 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Refrain: “Of all which pass'd the sorrow only stays.”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Sir Walter Raleighc. 1552–1618
Source record: PoetryDBFarewell to the Court by sir-walter-raleigh, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 9f8548eb389bce10…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Sad Nature Winter

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