Sir Walter Ralegh (1552-1618)

1. Sir Walter Ralegh (1552-1618)

2. Sir Walter Ralegh • Career • poet • courtier • soldier • privateer • explorer • scientist • historian • attorney

3. Sir Walter Ralegh • born at Hayes Borton, Devonshire in 1552. • from a prominent seafaring family • interrupted his education to fight with Huguenot forces in France during his teen years • attended Oxford University for 2 years and left before earning a law degree

4. Sir Walter Ralegh • first example of poetry appeared in 1576 as the preface to George Gasgoignes’ satire, The Steele Glass. • sailed to N. America in an unsuccessful attempt to find the Northwest Passage. • took part in England’s suppression of Ireland • earned a reputation as a war hero for leading a massacre of unarmed Spanish and Italian troops • summoned by Queen Elizabeth to serve as an advisor on Irish affairs, and was knighted in 1585 • was named captain of Queen's personal guard in 1587

5. Sir Walter Ralegh • wrote the majority of his poetry during this period to flatter the Queen and gain her favor • influence also ensured the favorable reception of his friend Edmund Spenser by the Queen • In 1592, Queen Elizabeth discovered that he had secretly married a member of the royal court, Elizabeth Throckmorton, during the late 1580s • Elizabeth then ordered the couple imprisoned in separate cells in the Tower of London • was released within months, but was stripped of many privileges and exiled from court

6. Sir Walter Ralegh • sailed to Orinoco Rivier in Guiana (now Venezuela) in search of gold • regained the Queen's favor in 1597 after participating in a raid on the Spanish Cadiz • appointed Captain of the Queen’s guard and was named the governor of the Isle of Jersey

7. Sir Walter Ralegh • accused of treason in 1603 by James I, the Queen's successor, who did not like him • convicted and sentenced to death • spent 13 years in the Tower of London • During the 13 years he wrote The History of the World, a literary and historical masterpiece. • convinced James I to release him by planning an expedition to find gold and silver in South America, the expedition was a disaster and his oldest son died in battle • imprisoned again, with his execution reinstated • beheaded outside the Palace of Westminster on October 29, 1618

8. Pastoral • Elizabethan Pastoral poetry • characterized by its focus on the simplicity, humility, and leisure of country life • expresses emotions in an idyllic setting  • related to the term "pasture," and is associated with shepherds writing music to their flocks

9. The Passionate Shepherd to His LoveChristopher Marlowe(1599) • Come live with me and be my love,And we will all the pleasures proveThat valleys, groves, hills, and fields,Woods, or steepy mountain yields. • And we will sit upon rocks,Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,By shallow rivers to whose fallsMelodious birds sing madrigals. • And I will make thee beds of rosesAnd a thousand fragrant poises,A cap of flowers, and a kirtleEmbroidered all with leaves of myrtle; • A gown made of the finest woolWhich from our pretty lambs we pull;Fair lined slippers for the cold,With buckles of the purest gold; • A belt of straw and ivy buds,With coral clasps and amber studs;And if these pleasures may thee move,Come live with me, and be my love. • The shepherd swains shall dance and singFor thy delight each May morning:If these delights thy mind may move,Then live with me and be my love. http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/noa/audio_16.htm

10. The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd Sir Walter Ralegh    (1600)  • If all the world and love were young, And truth in every shepherd's tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move To live with thee and be thy love. Time drives the flocks from field to fold When rivers rage and rocks grow cold, And Philomel becometh dumb; The rest complains of cares to come. The flowers do fade, and wanton fields To wayward winter reckoning yields; A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall. The gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,— In folly ripe, in reason rotten. Thy belt of straw and ivy buds, Thy coral clasps and amber studs, All these in me no means can move To come to thee and be thy love. But could youth last and love still breed, Had joys no date nor age no need, Then these delights my mind might move To live with thee and be thy love. http://www.eaglesweb.com/Sub_Pages/raleigh_poems.htm

11. Come live with me and be my love,And we will all the pleasures proveThat valleys, groves, hills, and fields,Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon rocks,Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,By shallow rivers to whose fallsMelodious birds sing madrigals. And I will make thee beds of rosesAnd a thousand fragrant poises,A cap of flowers, and a kirtleEmbroidered all with leaves of myrtle; A gown made of the finest woolWhich from our pretty lambs we pull;Fair lined slippers for the cold,With buckles of the purest gold; A belt of straw and ivy buds,With coral clasps and amber studs;And if these pleasures may thee move,Come live with me, and be my love. The shepherd swains shall dance and singFor thy delight each May morning:If these delights thy mind may move,Then live with me and be my love. If all the world and love were young, And truth in every shepherd's tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move To live with thee and be thy love. Time drives the flocks from field to fold When rivers rage and rocks grow cold, And Philomel becometh dumb; The rest complains of cares to come. The flowers do fade, and wanton fields To wayward winter reckoning yields; A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall. The gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,— In folly ripe, in reason rotten. Thy belt of straw and ivy buds, Thy coral clasps and amber studs, All these in me no means can move To come to thee and be thy love. But could youth last and love still breed, Had joys no date nor age no need, Then these delights my mind might move To live with thee and be thy love.

12. carpe diem: “seize the day” theme • poets have regularly adapted the sentiment of carpe diem as a means to several ends, most notably for procuring the affections of a beloved by pointing out the fleeting nature of life • immediate gratification of their sexual passions • Now let us sport us while we may,And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapt power. (Marvell)

13. Marlowe’s “Passionate Shepherd…” • Love in the spring countryside will be like a return to the Garden of Eden.  • Problems are caused by having too many societal restrictions.  • If we could get away from these rules, we could return to a pristine condition of happiness. 

14. Ralegh’s (Nymph’s)reply: • combines carpe diem with tempus fugit • Normally we should seize the day because time flies.  • Argues that because time flies, we should NOT seize the day.  • There will be consequences to the couple’s amorous behavior • Time does not stand still; winter inevitably follows the spring; therefore, we cannot act on impulses until we have examined the consequences.

15. Ralegh’s (Nymph’s)reply: • Ralegh uses the same meter and references to present "mirror images" of Marlowe's poem. • The feminine persona (the nymph) of the poem sets up a hypothetical set of questions that undermine the intelligence of the man's offer because all that he offers is transitory.

16. Ralegh’s (Nymph’s)reply: • She reverses his images into negative ones: • rocks grow cold • fields yield to the harvest • the flocks are driven to fold in winter • rivers rage • birds complain of winter

17. Ralegh’s (Nymph’s)reply: • We live in a fallen world.  • Free love in the grass in impossible now because the world is not in some eternal spring.  • The seasons pass, as does time.  • Nymphs grow old, and shepherds grow cold.