I basically need to find the poetic devices in sir walter raleigh's poems. ( specifically "to queen elizabeth", "sir walter raleigh to his son", "what is our life". and "even such is time." Thanks.

I couldn't find Queen Elizabeth, except with the outdated words. Poetic devices are things like simile, metaphor, personification and the like.

What Is Our Life

What is our life? The play of passion.
Our mirth? The music of division:
Our mother`s wombs the tiring - houses be,
Where we are dressed for life`s short comedy.
The earth the stage; Heaven the spectator is,

[Tsk. Horrible inversion (look it up) in pursuit of a rhyme]

Who sits and views whosoe`er doth act amiss.
The graves which hide us from the scorching sun
Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.
Thus playing post we to our latest rest,
And then we die in earnest, not in jest.

[Comparing life to a stage production. Cf. Shakespeare's, All the world's a stage.]


To His Son

Three things there be that prosper up apace
And flourish, whilst they grow asunder far;
But on a day, they meet all in one place,
And when they meet they one another mar:
And they be these: the wood, the weed, the wag.
The wood is that which makes the gallow tree;
The weed is that which strings the hangman's bag;
The wag, my pretty knave, betokeneth thee.
Mark well, dear boy, whilst these assemble not,
Green springs the tree, hemp grows, the wag is wild,
But when they meet, it makes the timber rot;
It frets the halter, and it chokes the child.
Then bless thee, and beware, and let us pray
We part not with thee at this meeting day.

[Need to find out what a wag is for this one. Some kind of plant? Fatherly advice, in any case.]


Even Such Is Time

Even such is time, that takes on trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with earth and dust ;
Who, in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days ;
But from this earth, this grave, this dust
My God shall raise me up, I trust !

[Hoping there is an afterlife.]

I think a wag is a smartass.

pam

Pam's right - it is! And the father assumes his son's waggery could hang him, just as the wood and the weed could supply the materials.

Chesil, can we get a ruling from the OED on this?

Meanwhile, IMHO Ralegh's best one. I once spent a long time trying to be sure what he meant by 'give the lie', which experts say is 'tell them they lie', but I personally suspect it implies a straightened middle finger gesture.


Go, Soul, the body's guest,
Upon a thankless errand;
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant:
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.

Say to the court, it glows
And shines like rotten wood;
Say to the church, it shows
What's good, and doth no good:
If church and court reply,
Then give them both the lie.

Tell potentates, they live
Acting by others' action;
Not loved unless they give,
Not strong but by a faction.
If potentates reply,
Give potentates the lie.

Tell men of high condition,
That manage the estate,
Their purpose is ambition,
Their practice only hate:
And if they once reply,
Then give them all the lie.

Tell them that brave it most,
They beg for more by spending,
Who, in their greatest cost,
Seek nothing but commending.
And if they make reply,
Then give them all the lie.

Tell zeal it wants devotion;
Tell love it is but lust;
Tell time it is but motion;
Tell flesh it is but dust:
And wish them not reply,
For thou must give the lie.

Tell age it daily wasteth;
Tell honour how it alters;
Tell beauty how she blasteth;
Tell favour how it falters:
And as they shall reply,
Give every one the lie.

Tell wit how much it wrangles
In tickle points of niceness;
Tell wisdom she entangles
Herself in overwiseness:
And when they do reply,
Straight give them both the lie.

Tell physic of her boldness;
Tell skill it is pretension;
Tell charity of coldness;
Tell law it is contention:
And as they do reply,
So give them still the lie.

Tell fortune of her blindness;
Tell nature of decay;
Tell friendship of unkindness;
Tell justice of delay:
And if they will reply,
Then give them all the lie.

Tell arts they have no soundness,
But vary by esteeming;
Tell schools they want profoundness,
And stand too much on seeming:
If arts and schools reply,
Give arts and schools the lie.

Tell faith it's fled the city;
Tell how the country erreth;
Tell manhood shakes off pity
And virtue least preferreth:
And if they do reply,
Spare not to give the lie.

So when thou hast, as I
Commanded thee, done blabbing--
Although to give the lie
Deserves no less than stabbing--
Stab at thee he that will,
No stab the soul can kill.

Yes, I think some defiance is definitely involved. If not a middle finger, then perhaps some thumb biting.

From Romeo & Juliet, Act I, Scene 1

SAMPSON Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them;
which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.
[Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR]
ABRAHAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
SAMPSON I do bite my thumb, sir.
ABRAHAM Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
SAMPSON [Aside to GREGORY] Is the law of our side, if I say
ay?
GREGORY No.
SAMPSON No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I
bite my thumb, sir.

pam

wag, sb,
1. A mischievious boy (often as a term of endearment); in wider application, a youth.
2. "Anyone ludicrously mischievious; a merry droll" (Johnson's dictionary) A habitual joker.
3. To play the wag: to play truant. (slang)
S.O.D.

I've always understood that to give the lie is to prove someone wrong, usually, in contemporary use, by an action, rather than telling them eg She gave the lie to her reputation as a successful businesswoman when she became bankrupt. Raleigh's use of it is an archaic one, presumably the modern one is derived from it.

Sorry - typo - meant something, not someone.

Lie...........
To give the lie to: to accuse (a person) to his face of lying. Also (transfered) of facts, actions, etc. Hence, occasionally, the lie is used for: The charge of falsehood; He abhors to take the lie but not to tell it, Berkeley.

SOD

Wag

†1. A mischievous boy (often as a mother's term of endearment to a baby boy); in wider application, a youth, young man, a ‘fellow’, ‘chap’. Obs.
a1553 Udall Royster D. ii. iv. (Arb.) 38, I will rather haue my cote twentie times swinged, Than on the naughtie wag not to be auenged. 1573–80 Tusser Husb. (1878) 177 For euerie trifle leaue ianting thy nag, but rather make lackey of Jack boie thy wag. 1584 Lyly Sappho v. ii. 55 [Venus says to Cupid:] Vnhappy wag, what hast thou done? 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 27 Mothers wagge, pretie boy. Fathers sorrow, fathers ioy. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. ii. 66 But I prythee sweet Wag, shall there be Gallowes standing in England when thou art King? 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster iv. iii, But if Cypris once recouer The wag; it shall behoue her to looke better to him. 1607 Heywood Fair Maid Exch. H4, Thou maist+Learne to entice the affable yong wagge. 1672 Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 87 Nor was he let down till the Master had planted a Grove of Birch in his back-side, for the Terrour+of all Waggs that divulge the Secrets of Priscian.

2. ‘Any one ludicrously mischievous; a merry droll’ (J.); a habitual joker. (In early use often combined with sense 1.) Phrase, to play the wag.
1584 R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xiii. xxiii. 324 How to rap a wag vpon the knuckles. c1585 Fair Em i. iii. 59 The little boy hath played the wagg with you. 1591 Lyly Endym. iii. iii, Heere commeth two wagges. Enter Dares and Samias. 1604 Breton Grimellos Fort. (Grosart) 9/2 Hauing wit enough, vpon a litle warning, to plaie the wagge in the right vaine. 1612 Beaum. & Fl. Coxcomb v. i, Just. Go to, go to, you have a merry meaning, I have found you sir ifaith, you are a wag, away. 1635 Life Long Meg of Westminster 37 The little boy, that was a wag, thought to be merry with the miller. 1640 in 11th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. vii. 100 Some wagg or other hath sett over the parliament doore pray remember the judges as if they had been too long forgotten. 1744 M. Bishop Life 156 We were daily playing the Wag, and as jocular as ever Men were all the time we stayed there. 1745 Joe Miller's Jests 61 The same Wagg+said, Taylors were like Woodcocks, for they got their Sustenance by their long Bills. 1779 Mirror No. 23 33 He took in succession the degrees of a wag, a pickle, and a lad of mettle. 1787 F. Burney Diary June, Colonel Goldsworthy is the wag professed of their community. 1845 Ford Handbk. Spain i. 21 The inns of Spain are divided by wags into many classes—the bad, the worse, and the worst. 1849 W. Irving Goldsmith i. 29 One Kelley, a notorious wag. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 358 Some wag cried out, ‘Burn it; burn it;’ and this bad pun+was received with shouts of laughter.

3. to play (the) wag: to play truant. slang. Also, to hop the wag: see hop v.1 6a.
1851–61 Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 87 Used by school~masters for the correction of boys who neglect their tasks, or play the wag. Ibid. 197 They often persuaded me to ‘hop the wag,’ that is, play truant from school. 1889 Jerome Three Men in Boat xvii. 284 A boy, when he plays the wag from school. 1900 ‘H. Lawson’ Over Sliprails 154 Oh! why will you run away from home, Will, and play the wag, and steal, and get us all into such trouble?

Nope, no plants. Thanks to Linda and Chesil for the lookups, though.

I really need help finding a literary analyzas of Ralegh's peoms for englsih class but between the 12 different spellings and the web sites selling term papers i cant find anything

Sir Walter Raleigh, criticism

Sorry, Cassie for that errant post. But you might try googling Raleigh, poetic devices, criticism, meter, etc. for some sources. There are plenty of sources, too many in fact, so the simplist way might be to go to your public, or college library and find a bibliography that lists Raleigh's work.

Les

<[www.luminarium.org]>

Luminarium, is always a good reference,

pam

would this be a metaphor?

our brand new coats were flushed and pink

(they're referring to their skin peeling off and
the new skin growing as their "coats")

> would this be a metaphor?

Yes

Depends. If you just flushed your new pink coats down the crapper, no metaphor.

[www.songmeanings.net]

Do animals who have (fur) coats ever get sunburned? Not that I have ever noticed.

And ... reading the rest of those lyrics, it is apparent that, if the author succeeded in constructing a metaphor, it was purely by accident.

What does Raleigh mean by the lie in his poem "The Lie"? What exactly is the lie?

James, in this poem he is not writing about a lie that is an untruth, he is saying "give the lie" that means showing that someone else is wrong.

I spent a lot of effort researching this one once upon a time. If you will substitute the word 'deny' for 'reply' and replace 'tell them they are full of shit' for 'give the lie', it all follows logically.

Interesting how Ralegh's view of those in power is as accurate today as it was 400 years ago, no?





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2006 10:20AM by Hugh Clary.

Excellent contemporary rendering !

(I assume you meant 'and substitute', not 'and replace').

With some tinkering and metrical tolerance, WR's rhyme scheme could even be maintained by substituting some negation of 'admit' (e.g. 'won't admit' or 'don't admit') for 'reply'. S1 L5 could become 'Go, as the world I quit'.

Of course the resulting translation would lack the elegance of the original, but sadly in that respect it seems unrealistic nowadays to expect students to attain the standard set by the man who laid his cape before his Queen to save her from muddying her shoes in a puddle.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2006 07:03PM by IanB.