The poetry of Sir Walter Ralegh, courtier, lover, explorer, poet, adventurer and pilgrim, is distinguished by its deceptively simplistic themes, dramatic emotional effects expressed through the use and reworking of complex stylistic and metric form, and a pragmatic view of age and death which is at times surprising to the modern reader. However, as Michael Rudick comments, “we lack an authorized collection, either in print or in manuscript, of all or most of what the poet wrote” (Rudick, xiv-xv), and so although the three poems in the analysis below are broadly characteristic of Ralegh’s treatment, none are definitely known to have been written by him.
‘Nature, that washed her hands in milk’
‘Nature, that …
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Citation: Bancroft, Victoria. "As you came from the Holy Land and other poems". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 January 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34685, accessed 21 November 2024.]