What Is Our Life?

SIR WALTER RALEIGH1552–1618

Background Information 1

Sir Walter Raleigh (c. 1552 – 29 October 1618) was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer.

He is known for popularizing tobacco in England. Raleigh was one of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era. In 2002, he

featured in the BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Raleigh was born in Devon, the son of Walter Raleigh and Catherine

Champernowne. He was the youngest of five sons born to Catherine Champernowne in two successive marriages. His family was highly Protestant in religious orientation and had a number of near-escapes during the reign of the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I of England. In the most notable of these, his father had to hide in a tower to avoid execution.

Little is known of his early life. He attended Oxford University for a time, fought in France, and later studied law in London.

In 1578, Raleigh sailed to America with explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert, his half brother.

Raleigh first came to the attention of Elizabeth I in 1580, when he went to Ireland to help suppress an uprising in Munster. He soon became a favorite of the queen, and was knighted and appointed captain of the Queen's Guard.

Background Information 2

He became a Member of Parliament in 1584 and received extensive estates in Ireland. His town mansion, Myrtle Grove, is assumed to be the setting for the rumor that his servant doused him with a bucket of water after seeing clouds of smoke coming from Raleigh's pipe, in the belief he had been set alight. Amongst Raleigh's acquaintances in the area was the poet Edmund Spenser.

In 1585, he sponsored the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island (now North Carolina). The colony failed.

In 1587, he explored from North Carolina to present-day Florida, naming the region Virginia in honor of Elizabeth, the “Virgin Queen.” A second settlement was established on Roanoke Island. This time, a more diverse group of settlers was sent, including some entire families, under the governance of John White. After a short while in America, White returned to England to obtain more supplies for the colony, planning to return in a year. Unfortunately for the colonists at Roanoke, one year became three. When the supply ship arrived in Roanoke, the colonists had disappeared. The settlement is now remembered as the “Lost Colony of Roanoke Island.”

Portrait of Raleigh inscribed right Aetatis suae 34 An(no) 1588 (In the year 1588 of his age 34) and left with his motto Amore et Virtute (By Love and Virtue)

Background Information 3

In 1592, the queen discovered Raleigh's secret marriage to one of her maids of honor, Elizabeth (Bess) Throckmorton. This discovery threw Elizabeth into a jealous rage, and Raleigh and his wife were imprisoned in the Tower.

On his release, in an attempt to regain favor with the queen, he set off on an unsuccessful expedition to find El Dorado, rumored to be situated somewhere in Guiana (now Venezuela). Once back in England, he published The Discovery of Guiana, an account of his voyage that made exaggerated claims as to what had been discovered. The book can be seen as a contribution to the El Dorado legend.

It would be several years before Raleigh returned to favor. The couple remained devoted to each other. During Raleigh's absences,

Bess proved a capable manager of the family's fortune and reputation. They had three sons, Walter, Carew, and Damerie.

Elizabeth's successor, James I of England and VI of Scotland, disliked Raleigh, and in 1603 the poet was accused of plotting against the king and sentenced to death. This was reduced to life imprisonment, and Raleigh spent the next 12 years in the Tower of London, where he wrote the first volume of The History of the World about the ancient history of Greece and Rome.

In 1616, Raleigh was released in order to conduct a second expedition to Venezuela in search of El Dorado. During the expedition, Raleigh's men attacked a Spanish outpost. In the initial attack on the settlement, Raleigh's son, Walter, was fatally shot.

Raleigh and his son Walter in 1602

Background Information 4

On Raleigh's return to England, the outraged Spanish ambassador successfully demanded that King James reinstate Raleigh's death sentence.

The execution took place on 29 October 1618. Raleigh left a small tobacco pouch in his cell. Engraved upon the pouch

was a Latin inscription that can be translated as, “It was my companion at that most miserable time.”

Raleigh's head was embalmed and presented to his wife. His body was laid to rest in St. Margaret's, Westminster, where his tomb may still be visited today. It has been said that Lady Raleigh kept her husband's head in a velvet bag until her death.

Raleigh's poetry is written in the relatively straightforward, unornamented mode known as the plain style. C. S. Lewis considered Raleigh one of the era's “silver poets,” a group of writers who resisted the Italian Renaissance influence of dense classical reference and elaborate poetic devices.

In poems such as What is Our Life? Raleigh expresses a contemptus mundi (contempt of the world) attitude more characteristic of the Middle Ages than of the dawning era of humanistic optimism.

Raleigh’s cell, Bloody Tower, Tower of London

Analysis 1

What is our life? // A play of passion; a Our mirth the music of division; a eye rhyme

Our mothers’ wombs the tiring-houses be, b Where we are dressed for this short comedy. b

Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is, c That sits and marks still who doth act amiss; c eye rhyme

Our graves that hide us from the searching sun dAre like drawn curtains when the play is done. d

Thus march we, playing, to our latest rest, eOnly we die in earnest—//that's no jest. e

In literature, a CONCEIT is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a

poetic passage or an entire poem.

THEME: Raleigh explores the meaning of life, or rather the lack thereof. Through the use of a conceit, Raleigh presents the idea that life is nothing more than a play performed before an

audience, implying that nothing has real meaning as people are merely acting.

Compare with the beginning of a monologue from Shakespeare’s “As

You Like It”:“All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts.”

The majority of lines are end-stopped, with enjambment occurring only once. This mirrors the woodenness Raleigh describes as being an inherent part of

life: everybody has a part to play, implying rigidity, and interactions

between individuals are strained and devoid of meaning.

Raleigh makes use of couplets, the poem being

end-rhymed aa-bb-cc-dd-ee; these are indicative of the monotony of life. Iambic

pentameter surfaces as the predominant meter, with instances of catalexis and hypercatalexis occurring

due to differences in pronunciation or poetic

license. Moreover, initial trochaic inversions occur in

lines 5, 9, and 10. Notice that these lines are key elements in Raleigh’s

message: line 5 introduces the idea of an omniscient

and omnipresent God; lines 9 and 10 present the

difference between a play and life, namely that death is unavoidable and final in

the latter. Overall, the structure is quite simple,

emphasizing the one-dimensionality Raleigh

ascribes to life.

Music of division = music played between the acts of a playTiring-houses = dressing roomsJudicious sharp = wisely criticalStill = everLatest = finalJest = prank; joke; witty remark

Analysis 2

What is our life? // A play of passion; Our mirth the music of division;

Our mothers’ wombs the tiring-houses be, Where we are dressed for this short comedy.

Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is, That sits and marks still who doth act amiss;

Our graves that hide us from the searching sun Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.

Thus march we, playing, to our latest rest, Only we die in earnest—//that's no jest.

The poem begins with a rhetorical question, establishing that which the poet intends to explore, namely the

meaning of life. The caesura immediately after the question

emphasizes the objective of the poem, as well as the main answer—life is a

“play” (line 1). Furthermore, the instance of catalexis that features in

the first line of the poem may be indicative of a dearth, possibly of

meaning or usefulness as regards life.

The image generally associated with theaters and plays is light-hearted and playful. This contrasts with the underlying bitterness present in the poem, as evidenced by the last

line. Raleigh points out the difference between a play and life: while the ending of a play means nothing as the following day will bring a new performance, death is final and

inescapable; alternatively, the last line of the poem might imply that death is the only real and meaningful part of life, when one no longer follows a script. The caesura is used for emphasis and to show that Raleigh is telling the truth, not acting a part. As for “only”

(l. 10), it suggests that, unlike actors in a play, people actually die. Notice the internal rhyme between “earnest” (l. 10) and “jest” (l. 10): it draws attention to the last line of

the poem, possibly making readers wonder why “in earnest” would be used in relation to death (“in earnest” is usually used to show a sincere or purposeful intent, or a serious, determined manner). Raleigh seems to suggest that people want to die—perhaps life is

nothing more than a journey to Heaven.

“Play of passion” (line 1) may be interpreted in two ways: (1) it may

refer to a powerful emotion, which is the standard definition of “passion”; (2) it may refer to the Passion Play,

which is a dramatic presentation of the Passion of Jesus Christ—his trial,

suffering, and death. The alliteration lends itself to the creation of

forcefulness and emphasis, the latter of which points to the fact that the

second interpretation is more appropriate; said alliteration likewise adds to the trenchantly sarcastic tone

of the poem. It follows that one experiences mostly suffering and

hardship in life, possibly as the only way to be admitted to Heaven.

Happiness is short-lived, as is the entr’acte

between the acts of a play. In this case, said

acts represent suffering. Alliteration is once again used for emphasis and an

impression of mocking scorn.

The word “dressed” (line 4) may hint at the process of providing

the soul with a body. Raleigh goes on to use the denomination “comedy” (line 4) in a tongue-in-

cheek manner, wishing to convey, in fact, a diametrically

opposed message.

Even though God does not intervene, He is ever-watchful

and records all sins. This is related to the concept of divine

judgment. Moreover, the prevalence of eye rhymes in an

otherwise punctiliously constructed poem, notably in lines 2 and 6, is indicative of

the fact that actors are liable to make mistakes in spite of the

rigidity of their scripts; therefore, it may be inferred

that people in general can and do give in to the temptation of

sin.

The “sun” (line 7) represents the audience. The word

“searching” (l. 7) may indicate an encore: after a play ends, the audience may demand a repeat

performance by means of applause. However, death does

not offer such advantages: people cannot return from the dead. Additionally, the simile extending through lines 7-8—that of “graves … / [being] like drawn curtains”—implies that

one does not truly live until the afterlife: when a play ends and the curtains are drawn, actors return to their real lives, and Raleigh likens death to this

transition.