Poet · Elizabethan
Sir Walter Raleigh
English poet · c. 1552–1618
Sir Walter Raleigh lived several lifetimes in one: soldier, courtier, historian, and the explorer who hunted El Dorado. Poetry was, for him and his Elizabethan circle, a courtier's accomplishment — which makes it remarkable how good he was at it.
"The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" is his clear-eyed answer to Marlowe's "Passionate Shepherd": flowers fade, gowns wear out, and pretty promises with them. After years imprisoned in the Tower of London, he was executed in 1618; "Even Such Is Time," a meditation on mortality, is said to have been found written in his Bible the night before. At the scaffold he called the axe "a sharp medicine... that cures all diseases."
7 poems by Sir Walter Raleigh
Full text, free to read — all in the public domain.
- A Farewell to False LoveFarewell, false love, the oracle of lies,…30 lines
- Farewell to the CourtLike truthless dreams, so are my joys expir'd,…14 lines
- LifeWhat is our life? A play of passion,…10 lines
- Nature that Washed Her Hands in MilkNature, that washed her hands in milk,…36 lines
- Song of MyselfI was a Poet!…42 lines
- To a Lady with an Unruly and Ill-mannered Dog Who Bit several Persons of ImportanceYour dog is not a dog of grace;…21 lines
- The Nymph's Reply to the ShepherdIf all the world and love were young,…24 lines